Original subtitles

[John F. Kennedy] We choose to go to the moon.

We choose to go to the moon...

We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things,

not because they are easy, but because they are hard.

We set sail on this new sea,

because there is new knowledge to be gained

and new rights to be won,

and they must be won and used

for the progress of all mankind.

We shall send to the moon,

240,000 miles away

from the control station in Houston,

a giant rocket,

more than 300 feet tall,

made of new metal alloys,

some of which have not yet been invented,

capable of standing heat and stresses

several times more than have ever been experienced,

fitted together with a precision better than the finest watch,

carrying all the equipment needed for propulsion,

guidance, control, communications, food and survival,

on an untried mission

to an unknown celestial body.

And, therefore, as we set sail,

we ask God's blessing on the most hazardous

and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked.

Thank you.

[Alan L. Bean] Just like a person waiting in the wings to go on stage,

they probably have less time to daydream

because they're trying to remember what they've gotta do.

You know, I had the feeling I really ought to concentrate on remembering

the things that I had to do at the moon and all that.

[Charles M. Duke, Jr.] Gosh, here we are, and we're getting down close.

I hope the suit checks out okay.

You get sweaty palms

and heart starts pounding.

It's like the big game about to start.

[Richard F. Gordon, Jr.] You're in your work clothes, ready to go to work.

But you still have to stay there.

You have to schedule it in conjunction with the booster schedule itself.

You're plugged into a console that's supplying 100% oxygen.

There's kind of a catch-up time

if there's a problem with the booster or something,

we're there at the pad until the count gets to a certain point,

and then we're called to proceed to the spacecraft.

[Woman] Y'all take care, now.

Godspeed, men.

[T. Kenneth Mattingly, II] At the last minute, there was a psychological block there

that said, "Don't count on this so heavily.

It might not happen."

This is such a big thing. I frankly don't see how you can do it.

Even when participating in it, I think it's audacious that you would try.

I clearly could never understand, as a crewman,

how to make it work.

I could only learn how to operate my share of it.

Being command pilot, I was sitting in the center seat,

so that meant I climbed in last.

I just stood around and waited till they strapped in.

And here was kind of a strange quiet.

You can look out and you can see a large part of the state

and the ocean and this thing out here.

You have the feeling that it's alive.

That's the kind of thing that sort of, for the first time,

begins to bring home the fact

that today is not the game we've been playing in training for years.

This is reality.

I had the only window at this point,

and I looked out, and doggone if the moon wasn't visible in the daylight,

right straight out the top of the window.

I know they're doing their job, because the moon's right ahead

and that's where we're pointed.

They're just gonna launch us right straight to this thing.

[Public Affairs Officer] This is Apollo Saturn Launch Control.

All still go on the Apollo mission,

the flight to land the first men on the moon.

The spacecraft also now is on full internal power.

Up to this time, it had been sharing the load with an external power source.

Once we get down to the 3:10 mark in the countdown,

we'll go on an automatic sequence.

All aspects from there on down will be automatic,

run by the ground master computer here in the firing room.

We have some 7.6 million pounds of thrust pushing the vehicle upward,

a vehicle that weighs close to 6.5 million pounds.

[Mattingly] We all are in this together as a team effort.

We're gonna make it work.

And I don't know how to make it work.

I don't know how to do most of this mission.

But I do know that I can assure you that my piece of it is gonna work,

and it won't fail because of me.

[PAO] The members of the launch team here in the control center

are monitoring a number of what we call red line values.

These are tolerances we don't want to go above or below

in temperatures and pressures.

They are standing by to call out any deviations from our plans.

The supervisor has informed launch vehicle testing, you are go for launch.

3:25 and counting. We are still go at this time.

[Mattingly] There's a long period of time

when you've done all the things you can, and there are few things left to say.

You don't know any new jokes to tell.

There's just not much left to say except just sit there and wait.

[Air To Ground/Mission Control] And it feels good.

[PAO] Astronauts report it feels good. 1:25 and counting.

Our status board indicates the third stage completely pressurized.

Guidance system goes on internal at 17 seconds,

leading up to the ignition sequence at 8.9 seconds.

Power transfer is complete.

Firing command coming in now.

We are on the automatic sequence. T -60 seconds and counting.

We're on internal power with the launch vehicle at this time.

All the second-stage tanks now pressurizing.

35 seconds and counting.

[Mattingly] It won't fail because of me.

[PAO] T minus 20 seconds and counting.

Guidance internal. 15, 14,

13, 12, 11,

10, 9, engines on,

5, 4, 3, in 2,

launch commit.

[Air To Ground/Lunar Module Pilot] Yahoo!

[Mattingly] It feels just like it sounds.

[AG/MC] I got a pitch and a roll program and this baby is really going.

Roger that. Stand by for Mode 1 Bravo.

Mark 1 Bravo.

That's a lovely liftoff. That's not bad at all.

[James R. Irwin] There's a moment there just of supreme elation,

a complete release of tensions.

To feel all that power precisely directed,

to know that we're on course, first of all for Earth orbit,

and then precisely inserted onto the right orbit,

the right trajectory, for rendezvous with the moon.

[AG/Capcom*] Apollo, Houston. You're right smack dab on the trajectory. * Spacecraft Communicator.

Your IU* is doing a beautiful job. * Instrument Unit.

[AG/MC] I got a yaw program.

[AG/CC] Trajectory's good. Thrust is good.

[AG/MC] We're on our way, Houston.

[Irwin] At last, I'm leaving the earth, and I'm destined for the moon.

[AG/LMP] What a ride. What a ride.

[AG/CC] Roger. We copy, Pete.

[AG/MC] Roger. Looks good up here too.

Roll's complete.

[AG/LMP] This is really a rocking rolling ride.

[Stuart A. Roosa] You can feel it shake.

There's a real strong vibration.

Of course, you're up at the end of this beauty.

Here you are, going along with the G on ya.

It's up to about four Gs, but you're psyched up, good shape and all that.

Even lifting your arm to move switches... no problem.

[AG/CC] Apollo, you are go for staging*. * Dropping a stage.

[Roosa] Here you are coming up on staging,

and when staging happens, it's, like, man!

[AG/MC] We got skirt step.

And that's for ignition, Houston.

[AG/CC] Thrust is go. [AG/MC] Roger.

[AG/CC] Trajectory, guidance, CMC* are all go. * Command Module Computer.

[AG/MC] Thank you, Joe.

[AG/CC] Houston, you're looking good here, right down the center line.

[PAO] That was shutdown right on the money.

17 Houston, you are go for orbit.

[PAO] And we're out over the Canaries.

[AG/CC] Apollo, Houston through the Canaries. How do you read?

[AG/MC] Loud and clear, Houston. Over the Canaries.

[AG/MC] Boy, it's just beautiful up here looking out the window.

It's just really fantastic.

[AG/CC] Roger.

[AG/MC] Let me tell ya a little bit about the ride.

[AG/CC] John, this is Houston.

If there's nothing startling to report about the ride, we'd rather hold off.

[AG/MC] No, there's nothing really spectacularly different to report on the ride.

We'll hold off on that.

[AG/MC] The sunset is just as beautiful as always in this space business.

[Mattingly] In Africa, there are a lot of nomads out in the desert.

Clear desert nights, you see the fires from all of these

little yellow dots that represent the fires

from all these nomads camping out.

And you realize the broad area you're looking at.

And each of those little dots represented people,

other humans that are out there in an environment which

I would consider more strange than the environment they might think about... me.

[Duke] When you get there into orbit,

the engines shut down and things sorta feel sorta funny.

And you sorta unbuckle your seat belt

and wiggle around in your seat or tap your toes

and all of a sudden you're just, bodies everywhere in the room,

and you're just doing flips and cartwheels and spins.

[Eugene A. Cernan] Your first feelings of weightlessness as it hits you

is like going down a country road about 60 miles an hour.

And the car goes over the bump, and your stomache goes up into your throat.

And then you get over the bump, and you get that good-sensation feeling

and then, boom, you're back down again.

Only, when you're in space and you go into weightlessness,

you go over that bump and you never come down.

[AG/CC] 12 Houston, your program alarm was an integration problem.

Can you give us a verb 96 enter to stop your integration

and we'd like you to do an E mod dump.

Give us a 3-2-1 mark when you do your verb 74,

and if we get it done now,

we should have an answer for ya on your erasable memory

by the time you get to Guaymas*. * NASA Flight Tracking Station in NW Mexico 242 miles from the US.

Do a verb 96 first.

[Mattingly] We had a great deal of difficulty

paying attention to what our job was.

Already I was getting the impression that

this is such an amazing thing that I'm gonna forget these things.

Though I'm going to lose this image, it's going to be replaced with another.

Each image [that] came up was there for a flash to be appreciated and savored

and then reluctantly let go because you know it's gonna be superposed with others.

[AG/LMP] And, Houston, we're beginning to see a beautiful sunrise here.

[AG/CC] Okay. We're giving you a go for your EVA at this time.

[AG/LMP] Okay. The hatch is open. No sweat.

It stayed just where I wanted it.

Dave, come on out wherever you are.

[Russell L. Schweickart] When you're outside in one of those spacesuits,

you're really in space.

There are no boundaries to what you're seeing.

It's like having a goldfish bowl over your head

which gives you unlimited visibility.

And then the portable life support system is just very, very quiet.

You know, there's a water pump in it that's circulating water

through your underwear, you know, cooling water.

And there's a fan that's pumping the oxygen through, but they're very quiet.

You can't hear them at all.

It's as if you're out there without anything on.

[AG/LMP] Hallelujah. Hallelujah, Houston.

[Schweickart] There's a total complete silence and that beautiful view

and the realization, of course, that you're going 25,000 miles an hour.

You recognize that you're not there because you deserve to be there.

You were just lucky.

You're a representative of humanity at that point in history

having that experience, in a sense, for the rest of mankind.

[AG/CC] The flight director says get back in.

[PAO] Apollo Control Houston. 2:25 ground elapsed time.

It will be during this pass that we will have the translunar injection burn.

[Dean Krantz] Capcom, we're go for TLI.

Roger. Guys, I've got the word you wanted to hear.

You are go for TLI. You're go for the moon.

[Mattingly] If there's anything to be a little bit remorseful about on going to the moon,

it was you didn't get to spend as much time around the earth as you'd like

because there's an awful lot of very interesting things to see.

[AG/MC] 3-2-1, ignition.

[AG/CC] We confirm ignition, and the thrust is go.

You guys are really hauling the mail out of there.

[AG/MC] Boy, you'd better believe it. It's like we're climbing straight up.

It's a fantastic sight. Just like we were shot straight up.

[AG/CC] You're going about 6000 feet a second.

[PAO] Their present altitude is now about 3000 miles,

and the spacecraft moving at nearly 35,000 feet per second.

These three crew members

are traveling faster than any man has ever flown before.

[James Lovell, Jr.] There's not much sensation of what's really happening

except we're looking at the computer and the computer is adding up the velocity,

and suddenly we really knew that we were really traveling.

And shoot, when that engine lit off, it was on for a long time.

[AG/MC] Shutdown.

[Lovell] But it really hit us when it stopped,

and we turned around and looked at the earth.

Suddenly, the earth had started to shrink.

[AG/CMP] Hello, Houston. You'd have to see this planet to believe it.

[AG/LMP] This is just so you guys don't get too excited

and forget what your job is down there.

[AG/CC] We're ready for what we're about to receive.

[Frank Sinatra On Tape] # Fly me to the moon

# Let me play among the stars

# Let me see what spring is like

# On Jupiter and Mars

# In other words

# Please be true

# In other words

# I love you ##

which you could listen to music.

We were allowed to carry a personal cassette so you could play the music.

Mine was country music.

[Man On Tape] Hi, this is Buck Owens from the Buckaroos.

We came down to the studio and thought we'd put together a little thing

that you could take along with you on your trip.

Now when you get back, they're probably gonna put you in the movies,

so the first thing we're gonna do for ya

is to play a little song called "Act Naturally."

It goes like this:

# They're gonna put me in the movies

# They're gonna make a big star out of me

# Well, we'll make a scene about a man that's sad and lonely

# And all I gotta do is act naturally

# Well, I'll bet you I'm a-gonna be a big star

# You might win an Oscar You can never tell

# The movies are gonna make me a big star

# 'Cause I can play the part so well

# Well, I hope you'll come to see me in the movie

# And I know that you're gonna plainly see

# Mmm, the biggest fool that's ever hit the big time

# And all I gotta do is act naturally

By the way, you know we're making this tape, and they're going to the moon.

They're on their way to the moon right now. Oh.

[AG/CC] Hey, anybody up there read me? This is Houston.

[Roosa] You don't think of it as Texas or the United States.

You really think of it as Earth.

The three things that I associated with Earth

were people and green trees and fresh water.

[Man On Tape] This is different for me. My name is Merle Haggard,

and this is my band, the Strangers.

I hope we will be able to do something you'll enjoy hearing on your way to the moon.

And of course, we hope that you come back,

but we want you to leave this tape there, okay?

We want this tape to be out of sight.

# Someday when our dream world finds us

# And these hard times are gone

# We'll laugh and count our blessings

# In a mansion all our own

# If we both pull together

# Tomorrow's sure to come

# Someday we'll look back

# And say

# It was fun

[Roosa] When you get ready to eat,

they'll say right on there, "Command Module Pilot, day 3, meal 2."

So you take that packet out,

and you may have two drinks

and three or four different types of food in there.

So you've gotta find a spot to stick these, or they're gonna float off.

And then you've gotta get the water gun.

You gotta mix up the drinks and mix up the food

and knead 'em around

and not let everything float off in the interim.

# And someday

# We'll look back and say

# It was fun

# Someday

# When our dream world finds us

[Duke] The only bad part about zero gravity in Apollo

was going to the bathroom.

We had a very crude system.

For your feces, it was a bag,

and you'd put this bag in the right position.

So you go but nothing goes to the bottom of the bag in zero gravity.

Everything floats. So you've got this bag and then the problem

is getting it off and closing up the bag,

making sure everything's still in the bag.

# Someday

# We'll look back and say

# We had a good time on the way to the moon, didn't we ##

[AG/Command Module Pilot] Are you still planning to have TV at the scheduled time?

[AG/CC] Right. You can go ahead with the TV now. We're standing by.

[AG/LMP] Hello, Houston. We've got a beautiful view of the earth here

that is absolutely fantastic.

[PAO] We're standing by at this time to receive

the first TV transmission from the spacecraft.

[AG/CMP] Houston, we're now showing you a view of the earth

through the telephoto lens.

This transmission is coming to you

approximately halfway between the moon and the earth.

[AG/LMP] It makes you realize just what you have back there on Earth.

The earth from here is a grand oasis in the big vastness of space.

[AG/MC] I keep imagining, if I'm some lonely traveler from another planet,

would I land on the blue or the brown part of the earth?

[AG/CMP] Okay, world. Hold on to your hat.

I'm gonna turn ya upside down.

[PAO] The spacecraft at the present time

is in a slow roll as part of the passive thermal control program

to maintain temperatures.

[Cernan] You have to, literally, just pinch yourself

and ask yourself the question, silently,

"Do you really know where you are at this point in time and space

and in reality and in existence?"

When you look out the window and you're looking back

at the most beautiful star in the heavens,

the most beautiful because it's the one we understand,

and we know it's home, humanity, people, family, love, life.

And besides that, it is beautiful.

We can see from pole to pole and across oceans and continents,

and you can watch it turn and there's not strings holding it up.

And it's moving in a blackness that is almost beyond conception.

[AG/CC] Rog, how's that tape recorder?

Is the RPM up to nominal?

[AG/CMP] Yeah. It works pretty good here in zero G.

It works better than it does down there on the ground.

We're ready for the news now.

[AG/CC] Okay. Let's see.

The Beatles have announced they will no longer perform as a group.

The quartet is reported to have made in excess of a half billion dollars

during their short musical career.

Rumors they will use this money to start their own space program are false.

That's about it for news. A recap of how the top ten teams did yesterday:

Ohio State beat Purdue, 42 to 14,

Texas beat TCU, 69 to 7.

Tennessee lost to Mississippi.

Final score on that one was 38 to nothing.

Notre Dame won over Georgia Tech last night, 38 to 20.

And, of course, Purdue lost to Ohio State.

[Cernan] When the sunlight shines through the blackness of space,

it's black,

but I was in sunlight, and I was able to look at this blackness.

I mean, what are you looking at?

Call it the universe, but it's the infinity of space and time.

I'm looking at something called space, that had no end,

and at time, that has no meaning.

You can really focus on it

because you got this planet out there, this star called Earth

which itself is in this blackness, but it is lit up

because the sunlight strikes on an object,

strikes on something called Earth.

And it's not a hostile blackness.

Maybe it's not hostile because the beauty of the earth

that sort of gives it life.

[Mattingly] Throughout the flight,

the times when one could sit back

and really appreciate what an amazing adventure this was

was only during those little periods of time

when you had a chance to stop and do the things you weren't programmed to do.

A lot of times when there was nothing else to do

or after everybody'd gone to sleep and I couldn't,

I'd open up the window and look around.

One thing every spacecraft ought to have is a huge window.

Looking back at the earth was a pastime that I never really got tired of.

[AG/CC] Who've we got up now?

[AG/MC] The other two guys are pretty sleepy.

They sacked out again, so I'm holding the fort down for a while.

[PAO] Biomedical data recently was monitored,

and the CMP* was soundly asleep * Command Module Pilot.

while the commander was resting

but perhaps not soundly asleep.

[AG/CC] We got the black watch watching you tonight.

[AG/MC] You picked the midnight shift, I see.

[AG/CC] Yeah, it's turning out to be kind of quiet too.

[AG/MC] We like it that way.

[Bean] When you're out there in this little command module,

you see the risk you're taking because you realize

that, if the glass breaks or the computers quit working

or the electrical system quits working,

you're not gonna get back.

And you have time to contemplate this. You have time to think about it.

And you have time to run it through your mind a lot of different times.

[AG/MC] How far away from Earth now, Jim, about?

[AG/MC] It looks like you're approaching 150,000 miles.

[AG/CC] Frank, we had a little egg nog over at Charlie Duke's tonight.

Val Anders dropped by. She's looking fine. Tell Bill she's doing real well.

[AG/MC] Rog, thank you.

[John L. Swigert, Jr.] Everything that I know,

my family and my possessions,

my friends, my country.

It's all down there on that little thing,

and it's so insignificant in this great big vastness of space.

[PAO] Here in Mission Control, the coffee cup

has become an appliance

second only to the headset

in usefulness here.

[PAO] Let's cycle through some of our consumables

and other items this morning,

and I'll tell you what we see.

And all this looks quite nominal.

[AG/CC] Lights, camera, action.

We'll show you some of the type meals that we have on Earth.

Matter of fact, on this flight, we've carried along pieces of bread.

And along with the bread

we have a ham spread.

And I'll show you, I hope, how easy it is

to spread some ham

in the environment of zero G.

I think we've discovered that it is quite easy to...

[AG/CC] That's great. Y'all ought to set this to music.

You want music?

[Theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)]

This little tape recorder has been a big benefit to us

in passing [for] the time away in our transit onto the moon.

And it's rather odd to see it floating like this, in Odyssey,

while it's playing

the theme from 2001.

- [AG/CC] We've lost our picture. - What the...

[AG/MC] Okay, Houston. We've got a problem here.

I got three fuel-cell lights, an AC bus light,

fuel-cell disconnect, AC bus overload 1 and 2, main bus A and B, out.

[AG/CC] This is Houston. Say again, please.

[AG/MC] Gang, I don't know what happened here.

We had everything in the world drop out.

[AG/MC] We are venting something.

[AG/CMP] I don't think this is gonna be a simple problem.

[PAO] We have an apparent serious problem

with a leak in the cryogenic oxygen in the service module

which provides breathing oxygen for the crew.

[AG/CC] Apollo, Houston. Try SCE* to auxiliary, over. * Signal-Conditioning Equipment.

[AG/CMP] NCE auxiliary?

[AG/CC] SCE. SCE to auxiliary.

[Krantz] Okay. Let's make sure we don't do anything

that's going to blow our CSM*. electrical power with the batteries * Command and Service Module.

or that will cause us to lose fuel cell number 2.

[AG/CC] On panel 276 under instrumentation and power control,

open CB number 3 and number 4.

Close ascent feed 1 and 2 circuit breakers.

Cycle the Parker valves, and then open the SMC circuit breakers on panel 11.

[AG/CMP] It's off. It's off.

[AG/CC] That sounds beautiful, troops.

That's exactly what we wanted to see.

[AG/CMP] Charlie, my hat's off to the guys in the trench.

I love 'em.

[AG/CC] And, by the way, welcome to the moon's sphere.

You're in the influx.

[Bean] One of the things different about a lunar trip

is you don't pass anyplace on the way.

Going to the moon, you leave the launchpad, then you leave Earth orbit.

And then a couple of days later, after passing nothing,

all of a sudden, you're at the moon.

And that lack of way points, to me,

had an effect of making it seem a little magical and mystical getting there.

[AG/CMP] This is really a rugged planet.

[PAO] We're drawing close to the moon with the Apollo spacecraft.

Our LOS clock, our loss of signal clock,

continues to count down until that time

that the spacecraft will pass out of communications range

over the backside of the moon.

On approach, the spacecraft just sort of dives towards

and behind the moon.

[Michael Collins] It was a totally different moon than any moon I had ever seen before.

It was in this eery shadow.

No motion. Utterly silent.

It sort of gave one a feeling of foreboding.

It didn't seem like a very friendly or welcoming place.

[AG/CC] Apollo, this is Houston. You are go for LOI*. * Lunar Orbit Insertion.

[AG/MC] Go ahead, Houston.

[AG/CC] Jim, you are go for the burn. Go for the burn.

[AG/MC] Okay. Apollo is go.

[Roosa] You're going too fast to orbit the moon. You're rocking on ready.

[AG/CMP] Okay. Two minutes, babe. Give it a final trim.

Burn time is 15 seconds, so it's gonna go in a hurry.

[Roosa] You're in the burn position. You're ready to go.

[AG/CMP] Baby, let's make this one.

- [Roosa] Then there it is. - [AG/CMP] 35 seconds.

[Roosa] It's 2001 [Odyssey] type stuff.

That old moon's just growing magnificently fast

and it's just filling up that hatch window

and you're drifting into the shadow.

[AG/CMP] Okay, baby. 8-7-6

5-3-2-1.

Burn. Burn.

[AG/CC] You're burning. Okay. 78 to go,

50 to go, 20 to go.

- Standby, Tom. - [AG/CMP] Shut down.

[AG/LMP] Beautiful, beautiful.

[AG/MC] Apollo, Houston. You got the burn off. We're in good shape.

[AG/MC] Boy, I tell you. We is down among them.

We is going backwards. You know that?

[Roosa] You've worked so long and so hard, and finally you're here.

The burn has gone well. You know you're in lunar orbit.

You know the orbit is good. You're right where you wanted to be.

And it just looked like you could reach out and touch it.

[PAO] Apollo now traveling over the backside of the moon.

The crew should be seeing the features, the rugged features,

moving below them at a high rate of speed.

[AG/CMP] Charlie, we just saw Earth rise and it's gotta be magnificent.

Charlie, it might sound corny, but the view is really out-of-this-world.

[AG/MC] Dave, you ought to start getting your hatch closed.

[AG/CMP] Say again.

[AG/MC] Start getting your hatch closed if you're not already doing it.

[Gordon] I was disappointed.

I wanted to go with them so bad I could taste it.

As far as I was concerned, that's what it was all about,

not only going to the moon, but going down to the surface and walking.

[PAO] We're now less than two minutes away from the separation burn,

which will be performed by the command module.

When we next hear from them, the lunar module

should be undocked from the command and service module.

[AG/CMP] You'll never know how big this thing gets

when there ain't nobody but one guy.

[AG/LMP] Yeah. Don't get lonesome out there, John.

[Gordon] I wish I could go down there with 'em.

You may not talk about it much,

but part of your training is coming back by yourself.

[AG/CMP] See you later.

[Gordon] I wish the damn thing would hold three people.

[PAO] It's grown quiet here in Mission Control.

A few moments ago, Flight Director Gene Krantz

requested that everyone sit down, get prepared for events that are coming,

and he closed with, "Good luck to all of you."

[AG/MC] We's go and we's down among 'em, Charlie!

[AG/CC] Rog, I hear ya weaving your way up the freeway.

[AG/MC] You're going right down US 1, Mike.

[AG/CC] Rog, copy. Looks great.

[Krantz] Okay, all flight controllers, go-no go for landing. Retro.

- Go. - Econ.

- Go. - Surgeon.

- Go. - Fido.

- Go. - Guidance.

- Go. - Telcom.

- Go. - GNC*. * Guidance, Navigation and Control.

- Go. - We're go for landing.

[AG/CC] Eagle, Houston. You are go for landing, over.

[AG/MC] Okay, Houston. We'll give you a countdown.

4-3-2-1. Fire.

[AG/LMP] Pitch over. There it is. Oh, baby.

[AG/MC] We are sure coming down to that drop. Look at that rille*. * Fissure, narrow channel.

That's gotta be, gotta be probably Diamondback right there.

[Pete Conrad] When the pitch is over and you get your first look, you know,

there's nothing but nine million craters out there.

A terrible sinking feeling.

I obviously didn't recognize a thing after studying all these photographs.

nothing looked right.

- [Krantz] How you doing, control? - We look good here. Fine.

- How about you, Telcom? - Go.

- Guidance, you happy? Fido? - Go. Go.

[AG/CC] You are go. You're go to continue power descent.

You are go to continue power descent. Over.

[Irwin] All during this power descent I kept telling myself,

"This is not for real. You're back in the simulator. Just remember that."

[AG/CC] Eagle, Houston. It's descent 2 fuel to monitor, over.

Eagle, Houston. Everything's looking good here, over.

[AG/MC] Houston, I'm getting a little fluctuation in the AC voltage now.

[AG/CC] Roger. Stand by.

[AG/CC] Looking good to us. You're still looking good.

[AG/MC] Houston, you're looking at our Delta H*. * Height Difference.

[AG/CC] That's affirmative.

Looking good to us, over.

[AG/CC] Eagle, Houston. We'll monitor your Delta H.

[AG/CC] 6 plus 25 throttle down. 6 plus 25 throttle down.

[AG/MC] Roger. Copy. 6 plus 25.

[AG/MC] Let me try Auto again now, see what happens.

[AG/CC] We got data dropout. Roger. Stand by.

[Krantz] We're go on that alarm? If it doesn't reoccur, we'll be go.

[AG/CC] We are go on that alarm.

[AG/MC] Roger. I understand. Go for landing.

[AG/CC] Roger. We got good data.

[AG/LMP] Altitude velocity lights.

[AG/CC] Eagle, we got you now. It's looking good, over.

[AG/LMP] Four forward, drifting to the right a little.

Coming down at 23. 21 down, 33 degrees.

[AG/CC] We're go. Same type. We're go.

[AG/LMP] Kicking up dust. [AG/MC] A couple of big boulders.

[AG/LMP] Coming right. Got a good spot.

[AG/MC] Not too bad. Here comes the shadow.

[AG/LMP] Are we coming in.

[AG/MC] Stand by for touchdown. [AG/LMP] Stand by.

[AG/LMP] Bam!

[AG/MC] Houston, Tranquility Base here.

The eagle has landed.

[PAO] There's a cheer in this room.

What we're witnessing now is man's very first trip into space

with a station stop along the route.

[AG/MC] We gonna stay, Houston?

[AG/CC] Eagle, you are stay for T1.

[Bean] This thing came to a stop on the moon.

It was kind of a letdown saying,

"You know, we're gonna have to get it going fast again to get back home."

[AG/CC] Neil, this is Houston. What's your status on hatch opening?

[AG/MC] Okay, Houston. I'm on the porch.

[AG/CC] Neil, this is Houston. Loud and clear.

Radio, check. And verify TV circuit breaker in.

[AG/MC] Roger. TV circuit breaker's in.

[AG/CC] Houston, roger. We copy, and we're standing by for your TED.

[AG/MC] I'm gonna pull it now.

Houston, the mesa came down all right.

[AG/CC] And we're getting a picture on the TV.

[AG/MC] Got a good picture?

[AG/CC] Okay, Neil. We can see you coming down the ladder now.

The surface appears to be very, very fine-grained

as you get close to it.

I'm at the foot of the ladder.

Okay. I'm gonna step off the LM now.

That's one small step for man,

one giant leap for mankind.

[Conrad] I had a bet with somebody who didn't

really felt that Neil spent a great deal of time

before he went figuring out his famous words,

and they were not extemporaneous, on-the-spot historical words.

He actually felt that these words

might have even been written for Neil by somebody else.

And I said, "Well, I'll bet you 500 bucks

"that when I get to the bottom of the ladder,

"nobody ever remembers what the second person to do something does anyhow."

I'm gonna say, "It may have been a small step for Neil,

"but it's a big step for a little fella like me."

[AG/LMP] Are you ready for me to come out?

[AG/MC] Okay.

I want to back up and partially close the hatch,

making sure not to lock it on my way out.

[Conrad] So this person says, "Ah, no way you're gonna do that.

They're gonna tell you what to say."

I said, "Okay, a bet's a bet." So I bet this person $500,

and when I got to the bottom of the ladder, I said it.

And that may have been a small one for Neil, but that's a long one for me.

[AG/CC] 12 Houston, we have you in blushing black and white.

[AG/LMP] What happened to the color?

[AG/CC] Maybe the color wheel will come up.

[AG/LMP] I can feel the wheels running

because I can feel something in motion inside.

[AG/CC] Why don't you put your glove in front of the lens?

[AG/LMP] All right. Will do.

- [AG/CC] That's coming in there now. - Got the ol' camera running.

[AG/CC] Okay. What change did you make?

[AG/LMP] I hit it on the top with my hammer.

I figured we didn't have a thing to lose.

I can't believe it.

[AG/MC] I want you to watch this.

[AG/LMP] I don't know if this'll work or not, Charlie.

Well, in my left hand I have a feather,

in my right hand, a hammer.

And I guess one of the reasons we got here today

was because of a gentleman named Galileo a long time ago

who made a rather significant discovery

about falling objects in gravity fields.

And we thought that where would be a better place

to confirm his findings than on the moon?

And so we thought we'd try it here for ya.

The feather happens to be, appropriately, a falcon feather,

for our falcon.

And I'll drop the two of them here,

and, hopefully, they'll hit the ground at the same time.

How about that?

That proves that Mr. Galileo was correct in his findings.

[AG/CC] We've got a beautiful picture of you guys up down here.

Let me tell you, Bob. This flag is a beautiful picture.

Hey, John, this is perfect, with the LM, you and the ol' flag.

We really should set the flag up on a hill, Charlie,

but there just ain't one.

I know, John.

I'll put it right here. Big rock.

[Duke] I was proud for our country more than I was proud for me.

And it was nothing that I did.

I just happened to have gotten there at the right time.

My background carried me through.

But there were a lot of other qualified people that didn't go.

Why my name came out, I don't know.

And we very proudly deploy it on the moon

to stay for as long as it can,

in honor of all those people who have worked so hard to put us here

and to make the country and mankind something different than it was.

[Duke] It was like sitting in the last row of the balcony,

looking down at that play going on.

While I was in the play, it was more like I was a spectator.

[AG/CC] Tranquility, this is Houston.

We'd like to say, from all of us down here in Houston,

and, really, from all of us

in all the countries in the entire world,

we think that you've done a magnificent job up there today, over.

Thank you very much. Have you had enough TV for today?

[AG/CC] Yes, indeed. It's been a mighty fine presentation there.

Thank you. Couldn't have enjoyed it as much as we did.

[AG/CC] Get some rest there and have at it tomorrow.

Okay. Signing off. See you again tomorrow.

[PAO] All systems on the lunar module are in good order.

We have not heard from Tranquility base since saying good night.

[Duke] My mind's one that just goes constantly,

so I took a sleeping pill.

Slept like a baby.

I had one dream that was very vivid.

In my dream, we were driving the Rover up to the north.

And you didn't really feel like you were out there.

It was untouched.

The serenity of it

had a pristine purity about it.

We crossed a hill.

I felt, "Gosh, I've been here before."

And there was a set of tracks out in front of us.

So we asked Houston if we could follow the tracks, and they said yes.

And we turned and followed the tracks.

Within an hour or so we found this vehicle.

It looked just like the Rover.

The two people in it, they looked like me and John

had been there for thousands of years.

It was not a nightmare-type situation, nothing like that.

Probably one of the most real experiences in my life.

[Mattingly] I'd have traded on the drop of a hat

to go and land on the moon.

I'm one of these nuts. I like classical music,

and I almost learned to like country and western.

One of the things I took was Berlioz' "Symphonie Fantastique,"

which seemed like that was appropriate to be taking to the moon.

And I was floating along,

just laying back and enjoying life.

I had just crossed the face of the moon,

going towards the darkness.

And here's this strange scene, this music.

And it just seemed to put it all together in one moment

that you could completely forget that this is a real situation.

[PAO] This is Apollo Control Houston

at 104 hours 31 minutes now into this historic mission.

The lunar surface temperature in the sun should be around 135 degrees today.

In the shade, the temperature would again be around

-100 to -150 degrees Fahreneit.

That would be in the shadow of the lunar module.

Look at that!

Ah, it's a panoramic scene of beauty!

Al, can you find the earth?

[AG/LMP] Oh, there it is. I see it.

Looking at the earth down there, Houston.

It looks like you're littler than a golf ball at arm's length now.

Sure looks pretty, though.

Really looks spectacular.

[Bean] It seemed very unreal to me

to be there, looking back at the earth,

thinking how far, far away it was.

This is the moon. That is the earth.

I'm really here.

[PAO] We're allowing about five minutes for the drive to station three.

[AG/LMP] Okay. Safety belts on.

And here we go.

[AG/LMP] How's the driving, John? Pretty easy?

[AG/MC] Driving good.

[AG/LMP] Man, Indie's never seen a driver like this. Barney Oldfield.

[AG/MC] Charlie, what should we be heading for?

- [AG/LMP] Those craters up there. - [AG/MC] Don't tell me that.

[AG/LMP] Boy, this is so neat.

You look like you're headed just about for our spot.

- See Survey Ridge down there? - [AG/MC] Yep.

[AG/LMP] This is gonna be spectacular!

No, not through this crater.

Trying to see if you're nervous.

[AG/LMP] Ol' Barney's really driving this beauty.

[AG/MC] Only way to fly, Tony.

[AG/LMP] This is gonna be such a spectacular view, you can't believe it.

[AG/CC] Well, that's good news.

[AG/LMP] We're here! You did it!

Hey, that was a good stop. Those wheels just locked.

Marked off! Super.

[AG/CC] John, did you dust that TV lens?

[AG/MC] Get some dirt in your eye, Houston?

[AG/CC] That does a good job on the lens there.

[AG/LMP] You want us to go up and travel along that ridge?

[AG/CC] Yeah, why don't you press on up there?

[AG/LMP] I think the best place here for the ALSEP* * Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package.

is to the LM's 11:00 position.

[AG/CC] That sounds good, Charlie. And, John, it's 2-6-6.

[Cernan] I felt very welcome there.

You know, the moon's been waiting for us for thousands of years,

millions of years maybe,

unless someone else has already been there before us at some time.

That's possible,

although we didn't see any evidence of that.

I felt like I was the only one there, but not an alien,

not an alien in terms of invading someone else's domain.

I didn't find the moon hostile.

I found it very majestically beautiful.

Bland in color, but majestically beautiful.

[AG/LMP] There's a look at that glass-covered one right there.

Pretty good size, isn't it?

It looks like it's about three days old.

So it must be on the order of four billion.

So let's fill this one up, and then...

Rats!

Betcha that looked like a comedy of errors on the tube.

Yeah.

Hold still.

That is a crystalline rock if I've ever seen a crystalline rock.

- First one today. - Yeah.

We gotta get over this ridge, John.

Do you want to take off and go that way now?

Yeah.

John, did you make those little footprints here?

Yeah, I guess I did.

Aah, the old footprints on the crater rim.

There's a good rock right there.

Look at the size of that rock!

I thought this thing was just right next door to us.

Well, Tony, that's your house rock right there.

It's got black streaks coming out of it.

This is tough doing here.

Let me have a shovel.

I'll get it. Just a minute.

Good deal, boy.

There you go.

I can't get going here.

[AG/CC] You've got about ten minutes left before we have to leave.

- Is that okay for you? - Yep, sure is.

[AG/LMP] 338 is the soil sample.

That is the best sample we got.

- I know it. - I'll tell ya.

[Cernan] You just had to steal time now and then.

You just had to stop chipping at a rock

and figure out that bringing back some kind of thought and feeling

was as important as bringing another chunk of rock back.

And not being a machine but being a human being, you have to stop and say,

"Do you know where you are and what you're looking at?"

And try and take in, in those few moments of privacy you have,

everything there is to take in in that moment.

[AG/CC] You've got five minutes here.

[Cernan] And all of a sudden, you've got to get to work.

Okay, Houston, as I stand out here

in the wonders of the unknown at Hadley,

I realize there's a fundamental truth to our nature:

Man must explore.

[Cernan] One of the things you gotta stop and do

is make sure to have fun too.

Because you're only probably gonna come this way once.

# I was strolling on the moon one day

# In the merry, merry month of December

- No, May. - May.

# When much to my surprise

# A pair of funny eyes

[Humming]

Boy, is this a neat way to travel.

Isn't it great? [Humming]

- I like to skip along. - Not me, boy. Skip.

Well, whatever you call it. I can't get my left leg in front of me.

[Humming]

[Duke] It was almost dangerous.

You lose sight of the fact that it's a vacuum out there,

and if you spring a leak in that suit, you're gonna be dead.

Nice soft Navy landing.

Boy, do I like to run up here.

I feel like Bugs Bunny. This is neat.

Here come the Bobbsey twins.

You're pretty agile there, twinkle toes.

I'm going out for the ballet when I get back.

You learn another line of work up here.

[AG/CC] And while you're bouncing around there,

you might keep your eye out for a nearby crater.

Ah, rats. I been on my knees twice to get that.

- John. - Yes, sir?

You are black from the knees down.

No way to avoid it. That's why I'm glad the pressure suit bends.

John, you are filthy.

I'll tell you, that's the pot calling the kettle black.

Hey, here's a rock they'll be glad to see in Houston.

Man, Tony, you don't know how much fun this has been.

[AG/CC] We concur, John.

[Schmitt] Having gotten away from the spacecraft,

I was able to really realize

what this place was like that we had landed in.

I had tried to anticipate what it would be like for many years,

but it was obvious that there was no way one could have anticipated

what it would be like to stand in the valley of Taurus Litterol,

a place deeper than the Grand Canyon and equally as spectacular,

and see this brilliantly illuminated landscape

with a brighter sun than anyone had ever stood in before,

with a blacker-than-black sky,

and then to top the whole scene off, in this blacker-than-black sky,

was a beautiful, brilliantly illuminated,

blue marble that we call the earth.

The path of evolution is now in space as much as on Earth.

Man has shown that as a species,

mankind was willing to commit itself

to living in environments that were completely different

than those in which the species evolved.

We put a shield of life around ourselves

in order to protect the life within,

but the willingness to go out there is there.

We've shown that.

The curve of human evolution has been bent.

[AG/CC] Okay, it's time to load up right now.

[AG/LMP] We're on our way again, Tony.

[AG/CC] We'd like you to drive gingerly up to the ALSEP area there.

[AG/LMP] Okay, we'll go on up.

[LG/MC] You want to go right or left?

We want to head... just keep going west.

I'm sorry. Hook a left.

You gotta expect trouble from backseat drivers.

[AG/CC] Okay, we copy that, John.

Look at this baby. I'm really getting confidence in it now.

[AG/LMP] This back wheel's off the ground.

Charlie, whatever you do, don't hit that brake.

[AG/CC] The Grand Prix drivers are at it again.

This is about the neatest thing I ever saw.

It's back to the LM, right, Tony?

[AG/CC] You bet your life.

And you're well ahead on the time line. You've been making good time.

[AG/MC] We must've forgotten something. That's all I can say.

[AG/LMP] Well, everything's running.

We're just about to start upslope here.

Have we been climbing, John?

Look at that pitch meter. It's pegged out high.

Yeah, we have been climbing.

Tony, we've really...

It doesn't feel like we're climbing, but we've been climbing for a while here.

We're going up a steep, steep slope, John. I'll tell you.

[AG/MC] Look at that, Charlie.

[AG/LMP] I don't see. What? What?

[AG/MC] Well, I'll be doggone.

[AG/LMP] Look at that!

[AG/MC] You said you were gonna see some other tracks on the moon.

[AG/LMP] I knew it.

We're going back down our tracks, Tony.

[AG/CC] Okay, good show.

[AG/LMP] There she is, John.

[AG/MC] Somebody up there likes us.

[AG/LMP] Don't run into our home.

[Irwin] I felt like I was an alien as I travelled through space.

But when I got on the moon, I didn't feel that at all.

I felt at home there, even though the earth was a long ways away.

We could see it directly above, about the size of a marble,

and realize that we were there but by the grace of God.

I felt like I was at the end of a thin cord

that could be cut at any time.

It was precarious, but yet I felt comfortable.

I felt something other than what we can visually sense.

A spiritual presence was there.

Perhaps it was because so many people on the earth were focusing their attention.

They were maybe sending signals to us somehow.

I sensed, I guess in a way,

much like maybe the first man on the earth would have sensed,

like Adam or perhaps Eve,

as they were standing on the earth and they realized they were all alone.

There was no one else on the earth,

but yet they had that special communication.

And I guess it was similar to the feeling I had

when I realized that Dave Scott and I

were the only two on this vast planet.

Another world. We were the only two there.

We felt an unseen love.

We were not alone.

Hi, big guy.

[AG/CC] Hi there, Charlie.

Bob, this is Gene, and I'm on the surface.

And as I take man's last step from the surface,

in everlasting commemoration

of what the real meaning of Apollo is to the world,

we'd like to uncover a plaque

that has been on the leg of our spacecraft

that we have climbed down many times over the last three days.

The words are:

"Here man completed his first exploration of the moon.

"May the spirit of peace in which we came

be reflected in the lives

of all mankind."

[PAO] Some 7:22 away from ignition

on the LM ascent back into lunar orbit.

- Capcom. - Go.

- Surgeon. - Go.

- GNC. - Go.

- Fido. - Go.

AFD. We don't have an AFD. FAO?

Network. Recovery.

Capcom, we're go for liftoff.

[AG/CC] Tranquility Base, Houston. You're cleared for takeoff.

[AG/MC] Roger. Understand. We're number one on the runway.

[Irwin] The moon is different.

It's become man's first outpost, our first footstep in space.

Where man was able to look back at the earth and see the earth,

and see himself in a different perspective.

[AG/MC] 6-5-4,

3-2-1, ignition.

[Cernan] As you leave, you're leaving this unbelievably beautiful,

naked charcoal ball out there in space.

And you've been around the moon. You've been on it.

You're seeing something that's familiar to you.

That's home. That's where we lived.

There's where we left the lunar rover.

That's where we explored the nearest mountains and the valleys.

It has, in a sense, been a home, a life-sustaining home for you.

And when you leave it and you see those things,

you leave it with the same kind of feeling and awe

that you left the earth with several days earlier.

[Bean] When we were about 30 minutes from rendezvous with the module,

Pete said to me, "You want to fly this thing?"

And I said, "Well, yeah, I'd like to fly."

As I took the controls, I said, "Wait a minute.

The people on Earth in Mission Control aren't gonna like this."

And to show how he thinks about things, he said,

"Don't worry. We're on the back side of the moon. They'll never know."

[AG/CC] Houston. You're looking good.

[AG/MC] Roger, Houston. We are returning to the earth. Over.

[AG/CC] Glad to have you on the way back home.

[AG/MC] I think I must have the feeling

that the travellers on the old sailing ships used to have.

You've gone on a very long voyage away from home,

and now we're headed back.

I have that feeling of being proud of the trip

but still happy to be going back home and back to our home port.

[John F. Kennedy] We set sail on this new sea

because there is new knowledge to be gained

and new rights to be won,

and they must be won and used for the progress of all mankind.

[Cernan] As time goes on, I truly believe

that you are able to pull out of the subconscious

a great many things that you absorbed

in those moments while you were there looking back at the earth.

And I can almost transform my body, certainly my mind,

through time and space instantaneously to that spot on the moon.

I know where I am when I look at the moon.

It's not just some abstract, romantic idea.

It's something very real to me.

The stars are my home.

Most footnotes are from the NASA Apollo Glossary.