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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.
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Neil Armstrong (CDR)
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Yes. I noticed that. That seems to be the worst, although similar effects are on—all around.
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Buzz Aldrin (LMP)
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Right in this area I don't think there's much of any *** fine powder *** clods together, and it's hard to tell whether it's a clod or a rock.
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Buzz Aldrin (LMP)
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There's a slight tendency, I can see now, to *** backwards *** due to the soft, very soft texture.
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Neil Armstrong (CDR)
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Yes. I think that's a good representation of our sideward velocity at touchdown there—hole at the probe.
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Buzz Aldrin (LMP)
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Can't say too much for the visibility right here without the visor up. It's dark. It looks like there is a *** surface of it is *** pounded rock *** And incidentally, these rocks *** very powdery surface ***
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Buzz Aldrin (LMP)
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A powdery surface when the sun hits. *** they split up all the very little fine porouses *** Will tend to slide over it rather easily.
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Buzz Aldrin (LMP)
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*** About to lose my balance in one direction and recovery is a quite natural and very easy *** And, moving your arms around, Jack, doesn't *** off the surface *** not quite that light-footed.
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Neil Armstrong (CDR)
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And, I have the insulation off the MESA now and MESA seems to be in good shape.
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Buzz Aldrin (LMP)
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Got to be careful that you are leaning in the direction you want to go, otherwise you *** slightly inebriated. In other words, you have to cross your foot over to stay underneath where your center-of-mass is.
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Buzz Aldrin (LMP)
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Yes. They are small, sparkly *** fragments *** places *** would make a first guess that some sort of biotite *** We'll leave that to further analysis ***
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Buzz Aldrin (LMP)
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*** compact underneath *** completely no *** you don't sink down more than … a quarter of an inch.
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Bruce McCandless (CAPCOM)
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Neil, this is Houston. That's affirmative. We're getting a new picture. You can tell it's a longer focal length lens. And for your information, all LM systems are GO. Over.
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Neil Armstrong (CDR)
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For those who haven't read the plaque, we'll read the plaque that's on the front landing gear of this LM. First there's two hemispheres, one showing each of the two hemispheres of the Earth. Underneath it says “Here Man from the planet Earth first set foot upon the Moon, July 1969 A.D. We came in peace for all mankind.” It has the crew members' signatures and the signature of the President of the United States.
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Buzz Aldrin (LMP)
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The surface material is powdery. *** How good your lens is, but if you can *** smudges … very much like a very finely powdered carbon, but it's very pretty looking.
Spoken on July 21, 1969, 3:02 a.m. UTC (55 years, 2 months ago). Link to this transcript range is: Tweet
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