WORLD OF SCIENCE
A giant step for mankind
DR. T. V. PADMA
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Armstrong and Aldrin made the historic landing on the moon, making Apollo 11 the most famous of all Apollo flights.
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Apollo 11 was the most famous of the Apollo flights. It was the first flight where men actually landed on the Moon. The flight commander was Neil Armstrong and with him were Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin.
On top of the Saturn V booster, the Lunar Module Eagle was placed inside a special adapter. The command module Columbia was on top of the Eagle and right on top of Columbia was the launch escape system. This would pull the command module and the astro
nauts away if there was any risk of accident at the time of the launch.
The three men sat in the cockpit of Columbia. They were put into radio contact with the launch and flight controllers and with one another.
At 9:32 Apollo11 lifted off. The thousands who had come saw a fiery explosion. Within 11 minutes the first two stages were discarded and the final stage pushed the astronauts into Earth orbit.
Mission accomplished
As the days went by, the Earth seemed to grow smaller — from the size of a basketball to the size of a baseball, then a golf ball, then finally the size of a marble.
The landing site chosen was close to the lunar equator. Armstrong and Aldrin landed safely and then prepared for the moon walk. Before descending Armstrong pulled a D-ring on Eagle’s side which had a small TV camera. It began transmitting to Earth. As people in Mission control watched, a black and white image emerged. They could see the shadowy form of Armstrong making his way down the ladder. With one foot on the Moon he spoke the now historic words: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”. The Mission was accomplished at last.
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