The moonwalk happened at a time when America was struggling with deep social divisions and helped bring society together for a common cause. The whole world watched on television as Armstrong stepped onto the Moon’s surface and spoke the words, ‘One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind’. On July 16, 1969, he was sat in an Apollo spacecraft atop the Saturn V, a rocket with the power of an atomic bomb, that sent the spacecraft to the Moon.įour days later Armstrong commanded the ‘Eagle’ lunar module as it landed on the Moon’s surface, despite a warning signal and briefly losing contact with mission control. JOHN TRIBE: Armstrong was the reflection of a nation’s will to go to an unknown and he was a true explorer, mankind’s first triumphant step off this world.ĭermot O’Leary learns how American Neil Armstrong took a “giant leap for mankind” to become the first person to walk on the Moon.Īged 21, Armstrong was a fighter pilot for the US in the Korean War - nearly losing his life on one of his missions.Īfter the war he tested some of the fastest planes, including the rocket propelled X-15, which he flew beyond the edge of Earth’s atmosphere to the edge of space. What for you would single him out for the Icon he is? And this was at a time when the country was struggling with deep social divisions.īOB SIECK: The Vietnam War polarised a lot of our society and we had all the ugly things that happened less than a year before the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy, but the Apollo programme was one of those… we got this, and this is a good thing.ĭERMOT O’LEARY: Did you feel that at the time?īOB SIECK: It felt that at the time, we’ve got all this ugliness over here, but keep in mind, people, society, we’re doing this, and this is good.ĭERMOT O’LEARY: Apollo showed the power of exploration to inspire and unite, and turned Armstrong into a symbol of hope for the future of mankind. The Apollo programme cost 25.4 billion dollars and accounted for 5% of America’s GDP.
So…relief that we had achieved it.ĪRCHIVE AUDIO: It’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.ĭERMOT O’LEARY: It was a symbolic triumph. JOHN TRIBE: There was an immense source of pride, this had been my whole life, for four years. But Armstrong, the Mission Commander, calmly continued his descent.ĪRCHIVE AUDIO: Three feet down, two and a half… the Eagle has landed.ĪRCHIVE AUDIO: We got a bunch of guys about to turn blue, we’re breathing again, thanks a lot. But as Armstrong began his final descent.ĭERMOT O’LEARY: …mission control lost contact.ĪRCHIVE AUDIO: We've lost data with EagleĪRCHIVE AUDIO: Charlie Duke, putting in a call to the crew.ĭERMOT O’LEARY: …the main computer flashed up an urgent message.ĪRCHIVE AUDIO: Give us a reading on the 1202 programme alarmĭERMOT O’LEARY: Mission control scrambled to figure out if it meant they had to abort the landing. On Earth, tension was building in mission control. Armstrong and Aldrin were in the lunar module preparing to descend to the surface. Lift off, we have a lift off.ĭERMOT O’LEARY: By the 20th of July, 1969, four days after the launch, the astronauts were orbiting the Moon. They are sitting on the equivalent of an atomic bomb.ĭERMOT O’LEARY: In fact, the Saturn V rocket that took Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins to the Moon had over two million working parts, and if anyone of them went wrong it could have meant death for the astronauts.ĪRCHIVE AUDIO: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, zero. JOHN TRIBE: The crew will tell you that they were very aware that they were riding a monster.
Can you try and paint the picture of how brave these guys must have been to be sat on top of it with quite a lot of hardware and explosives underneath them? The only rocket with the power to do it was the Saturn V. In 1969, John Tribe was part of the team responsible for getting Armstrong and his crew to the moon. Most of NASA’s astronauts were test pilots but even amongst them, Armstrong’s ability to stay calm was exceptional. Later as an elite test pilot pushing the limits of the rocket-propelled X-15, the fastest plane in the world, he almost lost control when he flew beyond the Earth’s atmosphere to the edge of space. DERMOT O’LEARY: In 1969, Neil Armstrong was the first human being to set foot on the Moon and in doing so completely changed our view of the world.ġ8 years earlier, as a 21-year-old fighter pilot in the Korean War, he flew dozens of missions, almost losing his life on one of them.