reentry control system (RCS), which
is normally only used when it’s time
to reenter the Earth’s atmosphere, in
a final attempt to stabilize their tumbling spacecraft. Their efforts were
successful, and after 25 minutes of
tumbling they were now stable in
orbit. However due to them bringing
up the RCS, they were now going to
have to end their mission early per
mission rules so the remaining maneuvers, EVA, and experiments would
not be performed. However due to
their quick thinking, extensive training, and skills as pilots, they saved
what could have been a disaster.
Armstrong flew one more mission
for NASA which you may remember
him for, that being Apollo 11, mankind’s first landing on the Moon. Armstrong will always be remembered as
the first man to walk on the surface
of the Moon. That however, would
have not been possible had he not
been the first man to land a spacecraft on the surface of the Moon.
The landing turned out to be more
of a challenge than anyone had
anticipated. Neil and his Lunar Module Pilot, Buzz Aldrin, encountered
problems with the computer during the powered descent, Program
Alarms kept displaying that they
were working through with Mission
Control in Houston. The computer
controlled the Lunar Module (LM)
through much of the descent phase,
so any abnormal alarms were disheartening to say the least. While
all these alarms were popping up,
Mission Control was trying to determine what they were, the crew
was making sure their machine was
still flying correctly, and the landing
spot was getting closer and closer.
On a lunar landing, the Astronauts
can’t even see the surface until the
LM pitches over. Since Neil and Buzz
were still dealing with some program
alarms when the vehicle pitched
over, Neil didn’t get a good look at
where the computer was targeting
them to land until they were only
about 2,000 ft. above the surface.
That’s where they saw a very rocky
area and Neil quickly decided to retarget the landing site, further down
the flight path, or land long as it is
known. Manually flying the LM, he
pushed the vehicle as quickly across
the surface as it would allow, slowing their descent and moving some
1,100 feet to the west before finally
finding a suitable landing spot. There
Neil dropped the LM down and set
the vehicle down for the very first
manned landing on the Moon.
Their estimated burn time for
the descent was 11 minutes and
58 seconds but they actually took
12 minutes and 34 seconds. They
were definitely low on fuel, estimates indicate they had about 45
seconds of fuel left, which in reality
would mean about 25 seconds as
they needed 20 seconds of fuel to
steady the spacecraft and abort
the landing. Of course Neil would
probably never have aborted;
he’d have landed it anyway.
Later that day, we all know that
he and Buzz Aldrin spent about
two and a half hours walking on
the surface, collecting samples,
setting up experiments, and cementing their place in history.
After leaving NASA in 1971
Armstrong went on to teach
Aerospace Engineering at Univ \