As they watched the sun come over the horizon of the planet, they realized they can’t find a camera.Ĭollins: Jesus Christ, look at that horizon! Armstrong: Isn’t that something? Collins: Goddamn, that’s pretty! This is unreal. All three of them had seen the Earth from here on previous flights to space, but it’s no less breathtaking.
Aldrin: Well, my, my feet are a little chilly. Armstrong: It sure doesn’t look, sure doesn’t feel like-actually, it may be a little, it may be a little warm. I think it’s a little on the … Aldrin: The manual one. Aldrin: … would you like it a little warmer, anybody? Armstrong: I don’t think so. Would you like … Armstrong: Feels comfortable to me. Aldrin: It’s a little on the chilly side in the cabin. Collins: I believe it’s at the angle we have to mark on it. Yes, but I can’t see it in the telescope. It’s in the … Armstrong: Did you look in the telescope? Collins: … in the sextant. Armstrong: Can’t see a thing, huh? Collins: No. Aldrin: Hey, I sure wish you’d get out that-that star chart. Aldrin: Nobody in their right … Collins: Menkent’s good … Aldrin: … nobody in their right mind would pick that one. Collins attempted to find a star named Menkent to help the spacecraft’s guidance systems figure out their orientation in space.Ĭollins: Menkent. “If we’re late in answering you,” Collins told Mission Control several hours after they launched from Cape Canaveral, “it’s because we’re munching sandwiches.”įorty-five minutes after the launch, the astronauts tried to get comfortable, sounding rather like friends settling in for a long car ride. Sometimes, they sound just like a group of guys on a road trip. Reading through the transcripts, it’s easy to forget these three men are actually hurtling through space at thousands of miles per hour, with no guarantee they’d get where they were going, and no guarantee they’d come back. The astronauts drink hot coffee and eat sausage for breakfast they listen to music they make fun of one another and of Mission Control.
These exchanges feel familiar in an environment that is anything but. The Apollo 11 flight transcripts capture these buoyant moments in a sea of jargon about spacecraft systems.
It wasn’t going to be business all the time. After all, the crew was stuck with one another for hours. And in between these tense maneuvers were easy conversations and playful jokes. Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins took an eight-day-long journey punctuated by a series of complicated procedures to reach the moon and make it back in one piece. Editor’s Note: This article is part of a series reflecting on the Apollo 11 mission, 50 years later.Īpollo 11 was all about the destination, but there was more to the mission than the landing itself.
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