For All Humankind. Tanya Harrison
Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were on a descending flight path, taking them closer and closer to the lunar surface, with each kilometer they traveled like a plane coming in for landing. They would soon land at their target in the Mare Tranquillitatis region, just above the Moon’s equator on the side facing Earth (the same side of the moon always faces Earth).
In that moment, Elly actually began to feel a bit nervous. With a background in electrical engineering, he knew how many points of failure there were in a machine as complex as the Lunar Module. Just one circuit failure or blown transistor and the astronauts might not be able to land. The entire event would be a disaster and two men would be marooned to die in space.
With the sun’s beams still blasting through the narrow basement windows, Elly listened to the voice of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) news anchor explaining that there would be no video of the actual landing. The TV cameras could only be turned on and connected to Earth once they were safely on the moon’s surface. The screen cut to a countdown clock and animation of the Lunar Module. Elly leaned forward and listened closely, cautiously, as the live audio from the astronauts played over a cartoon animation of the spacecraft descending.
He could hear Buzz Aldrin speaking with ground control in Houston, as well as to Armstrong, who was piloting the LEM. Buzz was reading out numbers from the computer, rattling off how high they still were above the surface and how much fuel was remaining. The power of those computers Buzz was reading from was unimaginable to Elly—they were the best of the best and were designed specifically to help humans fly in this strange environment on the Moon. He grew jumpier as he started thinking about the hundreds of transistors and circuits that must be operating at full capacity. After all, in his time running factories and radio repair stores, he had seen hundreds, if not thousands, of blown fuses, corroded connections, and faulty components. Knowing the nature of machines, he couldn’t help but be tense. He grabbed his glass of water, the ice cubes mostly melted away by now, and took another sip, hoping for the best.
As nervous as he was, the aspiring pilot and adventurer was still alive in Elly. This side of him wasn’t nervous at all, but actually jealous. What did it feel like to see the Moon’s surface coming increasingly closer to you? How did it feel to fly with no atmosphere? With no resistance, did it feel like the spacecraft wanted to drop like a stone? Could the astronauts feel the thrust of the descent engine? Every push of the navigation thrusters? What would they do if the main descent engine failed? The Lunar Module was like a single engine aircraft, with no backup plan if things went wrong. If an airplane experiences engine failure on Earth, pilots can glide to a safe landing thanks to atmospheric lift. But the moon has no atmosphere—if the engine failed, the Lunar Module would immediately plummet to the surface and crash.
Just as he continued to think about all of the possible electrical risks, mechanical risks, and flight risks, Elly heard Neil Armstrong interrupt a brief period of silence: “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.”
They had done it.
Finally able to relax, he leaned back into the couch and smiled. Forty-one years old, father of three, and a citizen of the world, Elly Gotz had one simple reaction: “Wow, what a moment!” Two astronauts had piloted a spacecraft to the surface of the Moon while he listened live back on Earth.
It was about 4:15 in the afternoon. The CBC newscaster informed the audience that it would be another few hours until Neil and Buzz exited the Lunar Module to explore the surface. Elly watched for a few minutes more, then finished his water, which had no ice cubes remaining, and went back upstairs.
He’d initially had planned to do a few more things around the yard, but admitted defeat when he realized he was simply too excited. It was a beautiful day, and the most exciting thing he had ever seen on TV had just happened. The kitchen upstairs was lit up with sunlight, the shine reflecting Elly’s mood perfectly.
Arguably, the most famous image of the twentieth century. This picture of Buzz Aldrin was taken by Neil Armstrong, who played photographer for much of the Apollo 11 mission.
Deciding he was indeed far too excited to go pull weeds from the garden or take on any other type of chore, he instead picked up the phone and started calling family members. He was ecstatic, but had no one to talk to in an empty house. He absolutely had to talk to somebody about what had just happened. He wanted to share what he had just seen, to talk about how amazing it was, and, ever the engineer, to make sure people appreciated the magnificence of the machinery.
Elly had spent years fixing radios and all sorts of other electronic devices. While radios are complex machines, they were nothing compared to what NASA had built to go to the Moon. Maybe, he thought, people who aren’t engineers can’t fully appreciate the technological immensity of what NASA engineers accomplished today. A machine can be very stubborn when it doesn’t want to work. Did people who didn’t work with machines understand how incredible it was to use them to land on the Moon? It takes great engineers to design a machine that absolutely cannot fail during its one and only opportunity to work.
Calling his friends and family, his voice was beaming with pride and excitement. Elly made sure to emphasize the amazing nature of the landing, insisting people appreciate the mastery of machines that NASA had just shown. For the next few hours he regaled as many people as he could over the phone with everything he knew about the space program (and engineering).
As evening approached, it was starting to cool off outside. The humidity was relenting too, at least a bit, and the sun was past the horizon. Only a slight bit of light still pierced the air. It was setting up to be a calm, warm, summer night. Having made his last phone call, Elly got ready to watch more of the mission. He went to the kitchen to make a sandwich, pour another glass of water, and look through the pantry for some snacks to satisfy his sweet tooth. Sadly, most of the good stuff had been packed up with the kids to go to the cottage. But, he finally spotted potato chips and chocolates—the perfect snack foods to relax downstairs with and watch history be made.
With no wind or rain outside, the streets were quiet on this Sunday night. The only sound in the house came from the TV. Elly wondered: was everyone else inside doing the same thing he was? He could see the Moon through the short basement windows above him. It wasn’t a Full Moon, barely at Third Quarter phase, but it seemed particularly bright. Inside, he sat on the couch and ate his sandwich as he listened to the newscasters of the CBC discuss what kind of preparations the astronauts were undertaking. By now it was nearly eleven o’clock at night.
Then, an image came on the TV. It was the side of the lunar lander. Elly had seen the craft dozens of times in the newspaper and during the news coverage of the Apollo 9 and 10 missions. But now it was sitting on the ground, a vantage point of the craft he hadn’t seen before. That was because this was a live feed of the lunar module on the surface of the Moon. The news anchor confirmed what he was seeing. A small camera connected to a long arm on the side of the lander had been extended and turned on. The Lunar Module wasn’t alone. Viewers could see Apollo 11 Commander Neil Armstrong holding onto the ladder along the side of the spacecraft, ready to step down at any moment. The image wasn’t very good, even for TV standards at the time—it was black and white and seemed faint. But that didn’t matter. Live video from the Moon was beaming into Elly’s basement. That feat alone, being able to transmit a live signal to Earth from the surface of the Moon, was surreal in the moment.
After a brief conversation between Armstrong and Houston, which viewers were allowed to listen in on, the young man from Ohio, two years younger than Elly, began making his way further down the lander. Armstrong was stepping feetfirst down the ladder that connected the Lunar Module crew cabin to the ground. He even tested being able to jump back up the ladder.
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