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Neil Armstrong (CDR)
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Houston, the MESA came down all right.
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Bruce McCandless (CAPCOM)
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Neil, this is Houston. Loud and clear. Break. Break. Buzz, this is Houston. Radio check, and verify TV circuit breaker in.
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Bruce McCandless (CAPCOM)
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There's a great deal of contrast in it, and currently it's upside down on our monitor, but we can make out a fair amount of detail.
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Neil Armstrong (CDR)
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Okay. I just checked getting back up to that first step, Buzz. It's—not even collapsed too far, but it's adequate to get back up.
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Bruce McCandless (CAPCOM)
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Buzz, this is Houston. F/2—1/160th second for shadow photography on the sequence camera.
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Neil Armstrong (CDR)
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Key moment One small step…: I'm at the foot of the ladder. The LM footpads are only depressed in the surface about 1 or 2 inches, although the surface appears to be very, very fine grained, as you get close to it. It's almost like a powder. Down there, it's very fine.
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Neil Armstrong (CDR)
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That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.
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Neil Armstrong (CDR)
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And the—the surface is fine and powdery. I can—I can pick it up loosely with my toe. It does adhere in fine layers like powdered charcoal to the sole and sides of my boots. I only go in a small fraction of an inch, maybe an eighth of an inch, but I can see the footprints of my boots and the treads in the fine, sandy particles.
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Neil Armstrong (CDR)
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There seems to be no difficulty in moving around as we suspected. It's even perhaps easier than the simulations at one sixth g that we performed in the various simulations on the ground. It's actually no trouble to walk around. Okay. The descent engine did not leave a crater of any size. It has about 1 foot clearance on the ground. We're essentially on a very level place here. I can see some evidence of rays emanating from the descent engine, but a very insignificant amount.
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Buzz Aldrin (LMP)
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Okay. You'll have to pay out all the LEC. It looks like it's coming out nice and evenly.
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Neil Armstrong (CDR)
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Okay. It's quite dark here in the shadow and a little hard for me to see that I have good footing. I'll work my way over into the sunlight here without looking directly into the Sun.
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Neil Armstrong (CDR)
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I'm just—Okay. I'm ready to pull it down now. There was still a little bit left in the -
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Neil Armstrong (CDR)
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Looking up at the LM, I'm standing directly in the shadow now looking up at Buzz in the window. And I can see everything quite clearly. The light is sufficiently bright, backlighted into the front of the LM, that everything is very clearly visible,
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Neil Armstrong (CDR)
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The camera is installed on the RCU bracket, and I'm storing the LEC on the secondary strut.
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Bruce McCandless (CAPCOM)
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Roger. Neil, we're reading you loud and clear. We see you getting some pictures and the contingency sample.
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Buzz Aldrin (LMP)
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Okay. The contingency sample is down and it's ***. Looks like it's a little difficult to dig through the initial crust.
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Neil Armstrong (CDR)
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This is very interesting. It's a very soft surface, but here and there where I plug with the contingency sample collector, I run into a very hard surface, but it appears to be very cohesive material of the same sort. I'll try to get a rock in here. Just a couple.
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Neil Armstrong (CDR)
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It has a stark beauty all its own. It's like much of the high desert of the United States. It's different but it's very pretty out here. Be advised that a lot of the rock samples out here, the hard rock samples, have what appear to be vesicles in the surface. Also, I am looking at one now that appears to have some sort of phenocryst.
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Buzz Aldrin (LMP)
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Okay. The handle is off the *** in about 6 or 8 inches into the surface. I could *** easy ***.
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Neil Armstrong (CDR)
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Yes, it is. it's—I'm sure I could push it in farther, but it's hard for me to bend down further than that.
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Buzz Aldrin (LMP)
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Yes, it is. It's not up against your suit though. Hit it back once more. More toward the inside. Okay. That's good.
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Neil Armstrong (CDR)
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Contingency sample is in the pocket. My oxygen is 81 percent. I have no flags, and I'm in minimum flow.
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Bruce McCandless (CAPCOM)
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Neil, this is Houston. We're getting a picture. You're not in it at the present time. We can see the bag on the LEC being moved by Buzz, though. Here you come into our field of view.
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Neil Armstrong (CDR)
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All set. Okay. You saw what difficulties I was having. I'll try to watch your PLSS from underneath here.
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Neil Armstrong (CDR)
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Okay. Your PLSS is—Looks like it is clearing okay. Your toes are about to come over the sill. Okay. Now drop your PLSS down. There you go; you're clear. And laterally you're good. You've got an inch clearance on top of your PLSS.
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Buzz Aldrin (LMP)
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Okay. You need a little bit of arching of the back to come down. … How are are my feet from the edge?
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Buzz Aldrin (LMP)
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Okay. Back in *** little of foot movement *** porch. Little arching of the back. Helmet comes up and clears the bulkhead without any trouble at all.
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Bruce McCandless (CAPCOM)
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Neil, this is Houston. Based on your camera transfer with the LEC, do you foresee any difficulties in SRC transfer? Over.
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Buzz Aldrin (LMP)
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That's our home for the next couple of hours and we want to take good care of it. Okay. I'm on the top step and I can look down over the RCU, landing gear pads. It's a very simple matter to hop down from one step to the next.
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Neil Armstrong (CDR)
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Yes. I found I could be very comfortable, and walking is also very comfortable.
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Buzz Aldrin (LMP)
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Okay. I'm going to leave that one foot up there and both hands down to about the fourth rung up.
Spoken on July 21, 1969, 2:53 a.m. UTC (55 years, 3 months ago). Link to this transcript range is: Tweet
