Apollo_11_Crew photo by NASA –

Top 10 Remarkable Facts about 1969 Moon Landing

The moon landing mission was one of the greatest leaps of faith for mankind involving the first arrival of a spacecraft on the surface of the moon.

Though the first objects to touch the surface of the moon were the Soviet Union鈥檚 Luna 2, the United States Apollo 11 was the first crew mission to land on the moon.

Mankind ushered in a new era when the Apollo mission succeeded and it鈥檚 amazing how such an idea revolutionized the technology industry.

Here are the top 10 remarkable Facts about the 1969 Moon Landing

1. The calculations of Apollo 11 were pioneered by a woman

Katherine_johnson photo by photo by NASA-

The moon landing mission of 20 July 1969 is mainly associated with the Apollo 11 crew who caught the admiration of the whole world for their successful landing on the moon.

Though there was a dedicated team that enabled the crew to complete the mission, the most significant contribution came from Katherine Johnson whose precise calculation ensured the astronauts made it to space safely and back.

Katherine had a gift for mathematics and was nicknamed the human-computer. She calculated flight trajectories by hand for the United States Space program.

She didn’t get to share the glory with the Apollo crew in 1n 1969, but her excellent work made the mission possible and is being celebrated in the modern day.

Her work as a mathematician guided the 196mathematicihuc Alan B. Shephethe became the first American in Space.

Her calculating skills helped John Glenn to become the first American to orbit the earth.

Katherine鈥檚 efforts and scientific contribution laid the groundwork for women astronauts.

2. More than 600 million people were able to view the broadcast

The most iconic sensation broadcasted in the world was the Apollo moon landing and it鈥檚 estimated that between 600 to 650 million people turned in around the world to watch Armstrong and Aldrin鈥檚 broadcast from lunar space on July 20, 1969.

The event was a new venture and captured the curiosity of people, even people in parts of Europe watched even though it was the middle of the night there.

The live broadcast broke the record for the largest television audience in history in that era.

3. The moon mission was a cold war against the Russian

When World War two drew a close in the mid-20th century, a new form of conflict began, known as the Cold war.

The battle was a passive sequence of events between the world鈥檚 two great powers _the communist Soviet Union and the capitalist democratic United states.

In the late 1950s, the stage shifted to space as a form of dramatic completion between the two powers, each wanting to demonstrate the Superiority of its technology, political economic system, and its prose military power.

Space exploration served as a means to send messages, when on October 4, 1957, a Soviet R_7 intercontinental Ballistic Misslisle launched Sputnik, the world鈥檚 first artificial satellite to be placed into earth鈥檚 orbit and this prompted the American government to begin the formation of NASA.

By landing on the moon, the United States made a point and effectively 鈥渨on鈥 the space race that began with Sputniks鈥 Launch in 1957.

4. There were 20 seconds of fuel left on Apollo 11 before landing

Armstrong_and_Aldrin_during_Apollo_11_landing_rehearsal photo by NASA-

In the detailed planning of the Apollo 11 mission, a site on the moon was chosen as the landing site that was believed to be the best choice available.

There is so much that man can鈥檛 control and to the shock of the two-astronaut prepared for landing, they were greeted by a sight filled with boulders and they knew it will be dangerous to attempt to descend.

The astronauts had to improvise and Armstrong began to manually navigate the probe which involved skimming over the risky site.

Though the decision was appropriate but not without consequences, the process involved the use of more fuel that would be consumed, and the probe had a fuel limit set before landing at its destination.

With luck on their side just before the two astronauts could meet their demise, the probe landed 25 seconds before reaching its point of alighting.

The crew鈥檚 fear of the worst was avoided where they imagine, in the event of failure it would have been an automatic abortion of the mission which would have forced them to travel back to the Columbia that was orbiting the Moon.

5. The Exact phrase by Armstrong on the moon has been disputed

Perhaps the most famous words uttered by Armstrong during the moon landing mission which summed up the brilliance of human history was 鈥淭hat is one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”.

The phrase has been caught in a web on the controversy over whether he fluffed his line.

The accuracy of the phrase has been disputed by Armstrong himself and he claimed his exact phrase was 鈥淭hat is one step for a man, one giant leap for mankind”.

NASA claimed the word was unheard and unrecorded in the transmission due to the static noise present at the time.

In subsequent years Armstrong heard the recording and accepted he fluffed the line.

Whether it was a verbal blunder or a misattributed phrase, it truly has gained popularity as one of the most famous sentences in the history of mankind.

6. There were three astronauts but only two landed

Buzz_Aldrin_and_the_U.S._Flag_on_the_Moon Photo by Nasa –

The events surrounding the Apollo 11 mission mainly revolve around two visible characters, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, with Armstrong taking the spotlight.

There is no refuting that the module that landed on the moon carried two astronauts, but they were three in total when they departed from the Kennedy Space Center.

When the Apollo spacecraft approached the moon, one module was left behind while orbiting the moon and was piloted by the character behind the scene of the significant moon landing event, Michael Collins.

Though Collins did not bathe in the glory of the world like the other two astronauts, the mission wouldn鈥檛 have been possible without his presence.

7. Apollo 11 computers were much weaker than modern cellphones

The computer system that geared the moon landing event were advanced for their time, they are technologically primitive compared to cell phones and smartwatches we use today.

The computers used then cost $3.5 million apiece and were the size of a car. They could perform several hundred thousand additions per operation per second and their memory played in the range of megabytes, which was the most complex software developed at that time.

Today Wi-Fi router is more powerful than the Apollo mainframe, let alone in contrast with iPhone which can take 3.6 billion instructions per second.

Though these comparisons aren鈥檛 quite just considering the differences in era, one is left with a sort of amazement at the kind of power the modern individual holds at their fingertips.

8.There was a ready speech in case of a failed mission

It鈥檚 no doubt that Apollo 11 engraved a place in world history and would be remembered as heroes and pioneers of space landings, but at that time there were doubts surrounding the success of their mission.

A good strategy calls for ready measures in the event of a failure of a plan and president Richard fearing the huge risk associated with the mission had a speech ready in the case of a catastrophe.

The moon landing was a new venture for mankind and nobody knew the success rate of the mansion, whether even the crew will be back on earth safely.

 Luckily there was no use for the speech as the mission was a great success and copies of the text have surfaced.

9.The crew was subjected to filling custom forms

The Us Customs made the Apollo 11 astronauts fill out a form for importing moon rocks and dust to the United States on July 24, 1969, the same day they landed in the Pacific Ocean around Hawaii.

The route of the flight was listed as Cape Kennedy, Florida to the moon, and finally to Honolulu, Hawaii. The crew鈥檚 cargo was summarized as Moon rock and dust samples.

10.The astronauts were quarantined

After landing on earth, the three astronauts were shifted to a quarantine facility where they remained for 21 days.

The reason for such drastic measure was simply to prevent contamination of any foreign microorganisms carried by the crew from the moon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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