Against all the odds Apollo 11 was coming home. ibid.
It is only now that we can truly understand just how close to disaster Apollo 11 really came. ibid.
Several crews saw objects. ibid. David Baker, Apollo 11 senior scientist
If you really took your finger and poked hard at it you could poke right through the outer skin of the spacecraft. It was about the thickness of two layers of aluminium foil. Gene Kranz, Apollo 11 flight director
Kranz: Keep Cool. We’ve solved the problem but let’s not make it any worse by guessing. Gene Kranz, Apollo 13 mission control
We had risen to probably one of the greatest challenges in history, put a man on the moon in the decade. We’d created incredible technologies. But what was most important, we’d created the teams, what I call the human factor. Gene Kranz
The computer in the space-craft was maybe somewhere between a digital watch and a cell-phone. I think closer to the watch. Jack Garman, Apollo 11 computer engineer
When Neil Armstrong stepped on to the Moon, he not only made a giant leap for mankind, he changed the course of his own life for ever. Neil Armstrong – First Man on the Moon, BBC 2012
Armstrong refused to live in the media spotlight and would seldom discuss his greatest achievement with the press. ibid.
Mike Collins remained in lunar orbit. ibid.
Hello, Neil and Buzz. I’m talking to you by telephone from the Oval Room at the White House, and this certainly has to be the most historic telephone call ever made from the White House. I just can’t tell you how proud we all are of what you have done. Richard Nixon
This is the greatest week in the history of the world since the Creation. As a result of what you’d done the world has never been closer together before. Richard Nixon to three astronauts inside module
A risk-taking explorer and forward-thinking dreamer. One Giant Leap: A Neil Armstrong Tribute, 2012
I think we’re going to the moon because it’s in the nature of the human being to face challenges. Neil Armstrong
That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. Neil Armstrong
I didn’t feel like a giant. I felt very, very small. Neil Armstrong, looking back to Earth from Moon July 1969
The exciting part for me, as a pilot, was the landing on the moon. That was the time that we had achieved the national goal of putting Americans on the moon. The landing approach was, by far, the most difficult and challenging part of the flight. Walking on the lunar surface was very interesting, but it was something we looked on as reasonably safe and predictable. So the feeling of elation accompanied the landing rather than the walking. Neil Armstrong, interview The New Space Race August 2007
Beautiful! Beautiful! Magnificent desolation. Buzz Aldrin, second man on moon, 20th July 1969
I remembered as I made an attempt to go to sleep and all of a sudden I would see a flash somewhere; before I could turn or get my eye on the flash it was gone. Buzz Aldrin, televised interview
From out there on the Moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, ‘Look at that, you son of a bitch.’ Edgar Mitchell, Apollo 14 astronaut, People magazine 8th April 1974
OK, Houston, we’ve had a problem here. John Swigert, Apollo 13, explosion of oxygen tank 13th April 1970
Apollo 13: the 1917 moon mission became a dramatic fight for survival. A story more remarkable than Hollywood could ever imagine. Apollo 13: The True Story, Discovery Channel 2011/12
‘Houston, we have a problem’ – but did anyone actually say that? ibid.
April 1970 ... For six days they had struggled to survive in a fatally damaged space ship ... It all came down to this moment ... It was the dramatic finale of an incredible story. Many believed the mission had been cursed from the outset, simply because 13 was an unlucky number. From the beginning the mission did seem dogged by bad luck. ibid.
Their mission was to land on an unexplored part of the moon. ibid.
Disaster struck ... Houston to Jack Swigert: ‘We’d like you to stir up your cryo-tanks.’ When he flipped the switch there was an explosion. ibid.
Lovell and Haise were to be the fifth and sixth men on the moon. ibid.
The astronauts and ground crew ... remained calm. ibid.
Houston: ‘You better think about getting in the LEM or using the LEM systems.’ ibid.
One man who found the solution – Crew systems chief Ed Smylie. ibid.
The astronauts’ lives would depend on a plastic bag, a cardboard cover from the flight plan and a hose from one of the space suits. ibid.
They looped around the far side of the moon. ibid.
Intense cold, bad air and virtually no sleep. ibid.
The command module powered up without a hitch. ibid.
Apollo 1 Pre-Launch Test, Cape Kennedy, Florida January 1967. Apollo 13 1995 starring Tom Hanks & Kevin Bacon & Bill Paxton & Gary Sinise & Ed Harris & Kathleen Quinlan & Joe Spano & Marc McClure & Ray McKinnon & Todd Louiso & Loren Dean & Xander Berkeley et al, director Ron Howard, caption
‘Hey, we got a problem.’ ibid. astronaut
‘This was my call.’ ibid. Hanks
Day 3 April 13: ‘As thick as a couple of layers of tin foil and that’s all that protects us from the vacuum of space.’ ibid. Hanks
‘Hey, we’ve got a problem here. Houston, we have a problem.’ ibid.
‘Houston, we are venting something into space.’ ibid.
‘The ship’s bleeding to death.’ ibid. Houston
‘We just lost the moon.’ ibid. Hanks
For sixteen months from 1970 to 1973 the Russians used a remote guidance system on Earth to operate two small rovers which travelled nearly thirty-one miles over the surface of the moon. This feat was one of the greatest technological achievements in the history of the USSR. Designed in utmost secrecy in Soviet laboratories, and eclipsed by the triumphant success of the Apollo Mission, the Lunokhod adventures remains virtually unknown to the public. Jean Afanassieff, Tank on the Moon, repeated UK Science Channel Space Pioneers Week 2011
In 1963 with computer technology in its infancy this seemed to be an impossible challenge. ibid.
The USSR gave a national funeral to the man who masterminded the country’s [sic] first successes in space. [Sergey] Korolev is buried at the base of the Kremlin. ibid.
There was a thirty second lapse between a command issued on Earth and its execution on the moon. ibid.
The anxiety of failure was palpable. ibid.
With the failure of the M1 rocket the Russians no longer had any hope of reaching the moon before the Americans. ibid.
Even the Americans thought such a technological exploit was impossible. ibid.
That day more than a rocket went up in smoke. ibid.
The Lunokhod descended to the surface ... This was a moment of triumph for the Soviet engineers. ibid.
The applause was above all for the Soviet scientists and engineers. ibid.
Suddenly a crisis: Lunokhod had fallen into a crater. ibid.
These men remained in the shadows for a very long time until History remembered them. ibid.
The major achievements of the Lunokhod program are – were, one, it was extremely early; two, that it did generate some meaningful science; three, it represented the solution of some difficult engineering problems by some very smart people. Dr Jim Burke, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory