"The Eagle Has Landed"

On July 16th 1969 three men left the Earth on a united mission to complete the goal set by John F. Kennedy to land the first humans ever on the Moon. The 38-year-old astronaut, Neil Armstrong, will get the honor of putting his footsteps where no man has ever laid his feet before. Joining him on this spaceflight are the astronauts Buzz Aldrin, who is the main character in this diary entry, and Michael Collins.

July 16th 1969.

The pressure was unbearable, and the heat in the 7,6 million pound heavy space vehicle was making me sweat. The thought about the worldwide audience and the almost one million eyewitnesses here was making me nervous. The boys sitting beside me, Neil to my left, and Michael to my right, looked just as shaky. The entire world was rooting for us, and I just wanted not to disappoint them. I looked at the time; 9.30 a.m. Less than two minutes left until the Apollo 11, a spaceflight I was on board, was scheduled to launch.

We could hear the engines starting. “Good luck and Godspeed” was the only thing we could hear from the Launch Control as we rose towards the sky. Neil replied, “Thank you very much. We know this will be a good flight.” Deep down inside, I knew it would be. We were about to make history, and be the first humans ever to walk on another celestial body.

We were flying at a speed of 24,200 miles per hour. We had frequent contact with Mission Control, and everything was going as planned. I looked to my left and Neil was smiling. So was Michael. It all seemed worth it now. The hours of training, the many tests and long days, all came up to this. In under three days we will be making history. My two best friends and I.

July 18th 1969

Two days later we were getting closer to the Moon. We had gone through the landing procedure many times, but we had never done it on the Moon. A lot of things could go wrong. We could miss the landing spot, or come in the wrong way, and eventually crash. It would be devastating to fail this mission and disappoint a whole world, our families and our nation. When we looked through the window, we could see the surface of the Moon. Grey dust and boulders as far as the eye could see. We were so close that I could already feel the victory, but we still had the most difficult part ahead of us.

July 20th 1969

As we got closer, I sat down and looked out of the window. Originally, I was the one who was supposed to be the first human on the moon. As the junior person, it was my job to go first. The commander with the most responsibility was supposed to stay inside to take action in an emergency. Of course, this was not mine, or Neil’s, fault. This was a decision made by the people much higher up in the system. Obviously I was sad about this. I could have been the first person ever on the Moon, which is an incredible honor. Being on this trip was an honor in itself, but I wished, without a doubt, I was the one who could be the hero.

Neil was telling us to get to our seats, because we were about to start the landing. Most of our trip was driven automatically, but this part had to be done manually. We only had one chance, so it had to be perfect.

The surface we had planned to land on was not smooth enough. We were desperate to find a new spot, because the time we had was minimal. As Neil steered to find a smoother space, I could feel my heartbeat rising. Faster and faster. We had been trained to deal with pressure and stress, but this was more than I had experienced before. We all held our breaths as the engine slowed down. It got completely quiet and all I could hear was my co-workers listening. Trying to catch the sound of the spacecraft landing. The sound of success.

We could hear the footpads touching the surface of the Moon, almost like a jet landing on a runway. Neil switched off the engine, and a strange quiet fell upon us, almost like a void surrounding us. What broke the silence was Neil’s report at exactly 4:18 p.m.: “The Eagle has landed”.

Sources

NASA, «Apollo 11», 6.7.1969, http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a11/A11_PressKit.pdf Retrieved 10.11.2015

NASA, “Log of Apollo 11”, 2004, http://history.nasa.gov/ap11-35ann/apollo11_log/log.htm

Retrieved 10.11.2015

Spector, Dina, The Surprising Reason Neil Armstrong – And Not Buzz Aldrin – Was The First Person On The Moon, 20.7.2014, http://www.businessinsider.com/why-was-neil-armstrong-the-first-person-on-the-moon-2014-7?IR=T Retrieved 01.12.2015

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