European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 17, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse Signalled that the on Board computer was getting overloaded. Would they have to abort Bales hesitated. Voices on four or five loops dissected the problem in a knowledgeable gabble in his ear. Within seconds he determined the problem could be safely ignored. Kranz grunted acknowledgement. The descent. Would continue. The computer alarm went off again. A Twete go Quot Bales told Kranz More confidently. Again the alarm came. Again. Quot hang tight everybody a Kranz said Over the flight directors Loop. A Veagie you re looking great you re go a said. Capsule communicator Charles Duke relaying Kranzy a Assam Duke was the Only one in Mission control allowed to talk directly to the Crew in flight. Armstrong proceeded As planned and took manual control at 2,000 feet. A / his flying skills were so formidable that three. Times a nursing a crippled Jet onto the deck of the Carrier Essex at the controls of an.x-15 and then in a gemini space capsule a he had turned near disaster into Triumph. Aboard the lunar Lander he steered the Craft Back and Forth seeking a Safe spot in the Boulder strewn landscape. A a. A a a. In Houston a flight controller announced on the Loop How much longer the Lander could Fly As descent fuel Levels dropped. Sixty seconds left. Thirty seconds. Fifteen. Through the Static Aldrin reported seeing dust from the surface blown up by the engine exhaust. A wok engine Stop a Aldrin radioed. Quot Houston Tranquillity base Here a Armstrong radioed. A the Eagle has \ it was 3 18 Houston time july 20,1969. Kranz gave the rest of life to Mission control. In 1970, when an on Board explosion threatened the lives of the Apollo 13 astronauts half into a curious c a and now it am none of the three Apollo 11 astronauts can remember who said it first inside the quarantine trailer aboard the Carrier Hornet after splashdown. But How True it was. Neil Armstrong Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins were unprepared for what awaited them Ori Earth after the first Moon Landing Mission in july 1969. Reporters camped in their Yards chasing the through town. Crowds surged toward them on Tours. Kings Queens and movie stars expected a visit and witty words. Speeches demanded. Opinions wanted. Autographs sought. Quot its certainly the part that we re least prepared to handle a Armstrong acknowledged a few weeks after returning to Earth Hack in the Days when he gave news conferences albeit not by Choice. And so it went and so it goes. A i Trade that Apollo 11 for anything. That does no to mean its been easy a Aldrin says today. Afterlife has been downright difficult in fact for Armstrong Aldrin and Collins who were Only in. Their 30s when they blasted into frenzied Fame 25 years ago. None Ever flew in space again. As the Moon men saw it they were just Guys doing their jobs. As everyone else saw it they were heroes and celebrities a Only three of the 12 ultimate Moon walkers Rev x a a a a a a Var it t x v % a w its it 1 b \ / s. V f ,2 a of Quot a. A. Map Saturn 5 rocket lifts Oft the Apollo ii astronauts from Cape Kennedy fla., on july 16,1969. Way to the Moon Kranz was at the flight directors console and helped save them. In 1986, Kranz a still in the Mission directors chair a had no Way to Avert disaster As an explosion destroyed the space shuttle challenger. And last Winter As space shuttle astronauts repaired the Hubble space Telescope Kranz oversaw the entire Mission operations directorate from the same chair. He retired in March. Turned to space a a ice Whiz we get to be explorers and Isnit that wonderful and then you have to come Back and pick up the garbage. Yeah it has some re entry problems there a says Apollo 14�?Ts Edgar Mitchell who went from Moon travel to the study of psychic Phenomena. A a a a a a a there is a big letdown afterwards and i think some folks have lived with it longer than others a says Apollo 14 commander Alan Shepard whose business investments made him a millionaire. A a it a Tough to do something so unique and in a sense out of this world and then come Back 10 most of the Moom walkers ended up in business or space consulting. A few showed to commercials. One became a Painter another a . Senator two turned to god one stayed at Nasa. One died. As for the fab three they left Nasa within two years of their flight. By 1971, Armstrong was at the University of Cincinnati teaching and trying desperately to keep a Low profile. Aldrin was Back in Active air Force duty struggling with mental depression and alcoholism Collins was at the state department and then the smithsonian institutions National air and space museum ready to punch out the next Guy who asked a what was it really like up there Quot a i have had it with the same question Over and Over again a Collins wrote in his 1974 autobiography carrying the. Fire. Quot it is the curse of flying in space this business of answering the same question 1 million times. There should be a statute of limitations on fast Forward to 1994, with no statute in sight. Armstrong no longer a professor still is hiding out in Ohio his office refuses to say what he docs. Aldrin says he Hasni to had a drink in More than 15 years and is pushing space and Aldrin. Collins is writing fishing and avoiding All ques Lions just in Case somebody asks what it was like up there.1 a Marcia Dun after the Down to Earth with reality by Alex Roland special to Scripps Howard j his week As we celebrate the 25th Anni first Landing of men on the Moon july 20,1969, poets and dreamers will retell the myth of Apollo. The problem with the Moon Landing project is that there is no consensus no agreed upon Apollo myth. There Are Many myths ranging from the ridiculous to the Sublime. All compete for our attention and our allegiance. Some even shape our Public policy. At the ridiculous end of the spectrum a certain Lunatic fringe maintains that we never went to the Moon at All. This conspiracy theory alleges that the moonwalks on our televisions were All staged in Quot some movie studio a Triumph of special effects a More centrist and popular Apollo myth is that the american people can do anything to which they set their will. A commonplace of the 1970s averred a if we can go to the Moon then Why can to we. Fill in the Blank eliminate poverty save our cities achieve Justice Etc. By achieving the impossible dream a phrase made familiar in by the musical version of Don Quixote americans it seemed had made All dreams possible. Another Apollo myth is that we won the Gold War. Americans were galvanized by sputnik and an inspiring Young president to a pay any Price racing the russians to the Moon. Not Only did we beat them we also bankrupted then fiscally and morally this myth has seized new life from the argument that the collapse of the soviet Union was precipitated by Star wars the latest round of the space race. Quot a John Kennedy a rhetoric also bred the myth that Apollo pioneered the space Frontier. The a new Frontier that symbolized his administration became a the new Ocean when applied to the Apollo program. Invoking Christopher Columbus and the great age of exploration Kennedy suggested that Apollo would launch another age of reconnaissance of equal portent. To scientists the myth of Apollo is the Banner of science under which it sailed Forth. Believing Nasa promises that the flagship of manned spaceflight would have ample berths for science they gave the project their Blessing. But the later Apollo missions the ones that were to have been devoted to science were cancelled. Apollo to those scientists is a betrayal of Trust a Noble undertaking reduced to circus. One of the most revealing myths of Apollo is that it represented a first step into a new and better world a and just in time. After millions of years of evolution humans had just acquired the Power to pollute Earth irreversibly and perhaps blow it up As Well. Spaceflight would save us from ourselves transport us to Pristine innocent new worlds that presumably would take millions of More years to destroy. Like Many of the Apollo myths this last echoed a belief that circulated widely in the first years of aviation. The sky it was then argued was pure. In the atmosphere there would be no crime no evil no racial prejudice. Human Harmony and Justice would be achieved in flight and presumably returned to Earth to infect the rest of us with its Blessing. Needless to say such utopian visions say More about the visionaries than they do about reality. In contrast to Many of the beguiling and romantic myths of Apollo a sobering reality returned from the Moon in 1971 in the person of Stuart Roosa command module Pilot of Apollo 14. A space changes nobody a he said. A you bring Back from space what you bring into Alex Roland is pro lessor of history at Duke University he was Nasa historian irom 1973 to t981. July 17,1994 sunday. Page 7
