The Unknown Story Of Apollo 11
When thinking of space exploration of the moon, the first thing that comes to mind is Neil
Armstrong and his famous words…“One small step for man but one giant leap for mankind.”
Though he played a crucial role in the early space exploration, do we really recognize the
struggle that the men and women of the Apollo 11 faced to carry their nation's pride. Read
further and learn the truth about the unknown story.
Before the Apollo 11 mission, everyone thought that the moon was a long shot. But as tensions
between the U.S and Russia grew everyone turned to space. So with Russia also eager to set
foot on the moon... the space race had begun. Though the USSR had a lead by being the first
to send a satellite and man into space the US was determined to be the first to set foot on the
moon, though this came with many uncertainties. The scientists at NASA did not know what
pressures the rocket had to handle to pass the atmosphere or the true geography and geology
of the moon. These problems became crucial barriers that NASA had to overcome. Despite
these situations they had built the Apollo 1, but some of the scariest moments were still yet to
come.
Within minutes from starting the landing sequence, there was a program alert. The error code
had read “1202” and at mission control Houston, they were frantically searching there notes
but couldn’t find the issue. Soon the radio connection kept fading in and out. The crew had to
now decide whether to continue with the mission or abort, and bravely chose to continue. The
crew had to get to work. While Buzz Aldrin tried to reconfigure the antenna to restore radio
connections Neil Armstrong and Micheal Collins tried to reboot the system. The system had
fully rebooted but it read error code “1201”. But there was a far more pressing issue to be
handled, they were way off course and might not have enough fuel to make the landing.
Within 30 meters to the landing they got the 60-second fuel warning. When they got to
30-seconds they were 10 ft off the ground then suddenly there was smoke all around and the
lights flashed- LIGHT CONTACT.
Control room at Houston was silent, they didn’t know what happened. Then they heard moping from the control room, which meant they had successfully landed. For many this was an emotional moment. Apollo 11 had carried the hopes of many Americans and served as a symbol for space travel ever since. This July we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 to remember and honor the people who struggled to make the American dream possible.
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Sources
https://www.space.com/26593-apollo-11-moon-landing-scariest-moments.html
https://eandt.theiet.org/content/articles/2009/07/the-great-uncertainty-of-apollo-11/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvaEvCNZymo
https://www.space.com/before-apollo-what-we-didnt-know-about-moon.html
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