Michael Collins (CMP)

Okay. We've got it. How far open do you want this the DIRECT O2 valve to be opened at this point? I guess you want it—just leave it open from that point on?

Bruce McCandless (CAPCOM)

Roger. It should go all the way open, and you can just leave it on from that point on. The intent is to completely depressurize the oxygen manifold. Over.

Bruce McCandless (CAPCOM)

Apollo 11, this is Houston. For your information the All Star game has just ended with the National League winning 9 to 3 over American. Over.

Bruce McCandless (CAPCOM)

And I have a message here for Mike that says “All the chinch bugs are gone.” Over.

Michael Collins (CMP)

Having done their job I guess.

Bruce McCandless (CAPCOM)

Well, along with one tree, it turns out.

Michael Collins (CMP)

Yes. I heard about that. That was right before the flight.

Bruce McCandless (CAPCOM)

Right. That big storm.

No contact for 1:07:37
Bruce McCandless (CAPCOM)

Apollo 11, this is Houston. Are you still up there? Over.

Neil Armstrong (CDR)

Yes, we are. But not quite so far as we were a while ago.

Bruce McCandless (CAPCOM)

Roger. We concur. We just wanted to make sure that we had good COMM with you.

Bruce McCandless (CAPCOM)

For general information, 11, you are now 95,970 miles out from the Earth. Over.

Neil Armstrong (CDR)

Right in our own back yard.

Neil Armstrong (CDR)

Right in our own back yard.

Buzz Aldrin (LMP)

Trying to come down hill a little bit now. What's our velocity?

Bruce McCandless (CAPCOM)

Your velocity is 5991 feet per second.

Bruce McCandless (CAPCOM)

And you are indeed coming down hill.

Bruce McCandless (CAPCOM)

Apollo 11, this is Houston. Over.

Bruce McCandless (CAPCOM)

Roger, 11. I've got a flight plan update for you to give you an optimum attitude for the Earth in the number 1 window and the Moon in number 5 window. Over.

Bruce McCandless (CAPCOM)

Roger. Your attitude will be roll 12 degrees, pitch 270 degrees, yaw 0 degrees. High gain antenna angles, pitch plus 14, yaw 263. Over.

Michael Collins (CMP)

Roger. I copy. Roll 012, pitch 270, yaw 0. High gain antenna, pitch plus 14 and yaw 263.

Bruce McCandless (CAPCOM)

Roger. And when coming out of PTC, you might be advised that your deadband has been collapsed, so follow the checklist items. Over.

Bruce McCandless (CAPCOM)

11, this is Houston. We're receiving a black signal from you right now, but we are getting TV. Over.

Bruce McCandless (CAPCOM)

Apollo 11, this is Houston. Over.

Bruce McCandless (CAPCOM)

From signal strength indications, it appears that we may be locked up on a side lobe with a high gain antenna. We'd like you to go into wide bandwidth for about 15 seconds and then back to narrow. Over.

Neil Armstrong (CDR)

You have good S band signal strength now, Houston?

Bruce McCandless (CAPCOM)

Roger. We're all set whenever you're ready to send.

Bruce McCandless (CAPCOM)

Okay. You're coming through loud and clear now, 11, with your patch.

Neil Armstrong (CDR)

Good evening. This is the Commander of Apollo 11. A hundred years ago, Jules Verne wrote a book about a voyage to the Moon. His spaceship, Columbia, took off from Florida and landed in the Pacific Ocean after completing a trip to the Moon. It seems appropriate to us to share with you some of the reflections of the crew as the modern day Columbia completes its rendezvous with the planet Earth and the same Pacific Ocean tomorrow. First, Mike Collins.

Bruce McCandless (CAPCOM)

11, this is Houston. We have an LOS here.

Neil Armstrong (CDR)

We'll be right back with you.

Bruce McCandless (CAPCOM)

In the interim, you may be interested in knowing that Jan and the children and Pat and the youngsters and Andy Aldrin are down here in the viewing room watching this evening.

Neil Armstrong (CDR)

We're glad to hear that.

Bruce McCandless (CAPCOM)

Okay, 11. You're back on, with Mike in the middle of the screen there.

Michael Collins (CMP)

Roger. This trip of ours to the Moon may have looked, to you, simple or easy. I'd like to assure you that has not been the case. The Saturn V rocket which put us into orbit is an incredibly complicated piece of machinery, every piece of which worked flawlessly. This computer up above my head has a 38,000 word vocabulary, each word of which has been very carefully chosen to be of the utmost value to us, the crew. This switch which I have in my hand now, has over 300 counterparts in the command module alone, this one single switch design. In addition to that, there are myriads of circuit breakers, levers, rods, and other associated controls. The SPS engine, our large rocket engine on the aft end of our service module, must have performed flawlessly, or we would have been stranded in lunar orbit. The parachutes up above my head must work perfectly tomorrow or we will plummet into the ocean. We have always had confidence that all this equipment will work, and work properly, and we continue to have confidence that it will do so for the remainder of the flight. All this is possible only through the blood, sweat, and tears of a number of people. First, the American workmen who put these pieces of machinery together in the factory. Second, the painstaking work done by the various test teams during the assembly and retest after assembly. And finally, the people at the Manned Spacecraft Center, both in management, in mission planning, in flight control, and last, but not least, in crew training. This operation is somewhat like the periscope of a submarine. All you see is the three of us, but beneath the surface are thousands and thousands of others, and to all those, I would like to say, thank you very much.

Bruce McCandless (CAPCOM)

11, this is Houston. We're getting a good picture of Buzz now, but no voice modulation. And would you open up the f stop on the TV camera; try 22, please?

Bruce McCandless (CAPCOM)

That appears to be a lot better now. We're still not receiving Buzz's audio.

Buzz Aldrin (LMP)

Good evening. I'd like to discuss with you a few of the more symbolic aspects of the flight of our mission, Apollo 11. As we've been discussing the events that have taken place in the past 2 or 3 days here on board our spacecraft, we've come to the conclusion that this has been far more than three men on a voyage to the Moon; more, still, than the efforts of a government and industry team; more, even, than the efforts of one nation. We feel that this stands as a symbol of the insatiable curiosity of all mankind to explore the unknown. Neil's statement the other day upon first setting foot on the surface of the Moon, “This is a small step for a man, but a great leap for mankind,” I believe sums up these feelings very nicely. We accepted the challenge of going to the Moon; the acceptance of this challenge was inevitable. The relative ease with which we carried out our mission, I believe, is a tribute to the timeliness of that acceptance. Today, I feel we're fully capable of accepting expanded roles in the exploration of space. In retrospect, we have all been particularly pleased with the call signs that we very laboriously chose for our spacecraft, Columbia and Eagle. We've been particularly pleased with the emblem of our flight, depicting the U.S. eagle bringing the universal symbol of peace from the Earth, from the planet Earth to the Moon; that symbol being the olive branch. It was our overall crew choice to deposit a replica of this symbol on the Moon. Personally, in reflecting on the events of the past several days, a verse from Psalms comes to mind to me. “When I consider the heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars which Thou hast ordained, what is man that Thou art mindful of him.”

Neil Armstrong (CDR)

The responsibility for this flight lies first with history and with the giants of science who have preceded this effort; next with the American people, who have through their will, indicated their desire; next, to four administrations, and their Congresses, for implementing that will; and then, to the agency and industry teams that built our spacecraft, the Saturn, the Columbia, the Eagle, and the little EMU, the space suit and backpack that was our small spacecraft out on the lunar surface. We would like to give a special thanks to all those Americans who built the spacecraft, who did the construction, design, the tests, and put their—their hearts and all their abilities into those crafts. To those people, tonight, we give a special thank you, and to all the other people that are listening and watching tonight, God bless you. Good night from Apollo 11.

Bruce McCandless (CAPCOM)

11, this is Houston. We're getting a zoom view out the window now.

Expand selection down Contract selection up

Spoken on July 23, 1969, 10:41 p.m. UTC (54 years, 8 months ago). Link to this transcript range is: Tweet

Michael Collins (CMP)

Houston, Apollo 11. Do you want to crank up PTC again; do you have some reason to hold its attitude, or what's your pleasure?

Bruce McCandless (CAPCOM)

You can crank up PTC again, Mike, any time you like. And I might add I thought that was a mighty fine TV presentation. There's certainly nothing I can add to it from down here.

Bruce McCandless (CAPCOM)

Apollo 11, this is Houston. Over.

Bruce McCandless (CAPCOM)

Okay, 11. I've got a few small items here: one flight plan update and some entry photography information, if you are ready to copy. Over.

Bruce McCandless (CAPCOM)

Roger. At 180 hours 50 minutes GET, we should like to delete your oxygen fuel cell purge.

Bruce McCandless (CAPCOM)

And on the entry photography, if you are going to use a fresh magazine of color interior film, we recommend the following exposure settings: f11 at 1/250, six frames per second, focus on 7 feet for the fireball; f2.0, 1/60 of a second, six frames per second, focus on 50 feet when the chutes open. If you are using a magazine, part of which has already been used for interior shots, we recommend f16 at 1/500 of a second, six frames per second, focus on 7 feet for the fireball; f2.8, 1/60 of a second, six frames per second, focus on 50 feet when the parachutes open. And we would like to know the magazine number that you are intending to use if you have a chance. Over.

Michael Collins (CMP)

Okay. I think we got those. We will be using a fresh one and it will be color interior. Over.

Bruce McCandless (CAPCOM)

Roger. When you get—get it out, we would like to have the number of the magazine and the letter of the magazine relayed down.

Neil Armstrong (CDR)

Okay. And we're thinking that we might want to run some of that at 12 frames per second. And I think we can get everything from 0.5—0.5g down; that will only give us about 7.8 minutes and … frames … double that. I guess maybe just an occasional burst to 12 frames would be what we want and the rest of it at six. Over.

Bruce McCandless (CAPCOM)

This is Houston. That plan sounds fine with us, Neil.

Bruce McCandless (CAPCOM)

And lastly, we would like to know if your stowage configuration for entry is going to conform to the nominal. The RETRO's down here are anxious to get an accurate e.g. computed for you, and in particular, where the LEVVA's are being stowed. Over.

Neil Armstrong (CDR)

Okay. We think we are going to put the LEVVA's and helmets in the hatch bag, and we'll let you know any other nonstandard stowage locations that we complete this evening.

Bruce McCandless (CAPCOM)

This is Houston. Roger. Out.

Neil Armstrong (CDR)

Roger. The magazine we'll be using for entry tomorrow is magazine M. Over.

Bruce McCandless (CAPCOM)

Roger. Understand. Magazine M as in Mike.

Bruce McCandless (CAPCOM)

Apollo 11, this is Houston. Your friendly Green Team going off for the night, and going off for the last time. We wish to bid you a good night and Godspeed.

Neil Armstrong (CDR)

Thank you. We appreciate all that fine work done by the Green Team, and we'll be thanking you in person when we get back.

Bruce McCandless (CAPCOM)

Roger. We'll see you on the ground.

Buzz Aldrin (LMP)

Really enjoyed working with all of you. Thanks very much. Over.

Michael Collins (CMP)

As usual, all you Greenies.

Bruce McCandless (CAPCOM)

They're all smiles down here, even the trench.

Bruce McCandless (CAPCOM)

Apollo 11, this is Houston. Over.

Michael Collins (CMP)

Roger. How's our thruster firing activity? We're about ready to crank up PTC if you are.

Bruce McCandless (CAPCOM)

Apollo 11, this is Houston. Over.

Bruce McCandless (CAPCOM)

11, we'd like you to shift to an OMNI antenna configuration at the present time. We're requesting the S band antenna OMNI switch to Bravo and the S band antenna OMNI switch to OMNI. The high gain antenna track in MANUAL. Pitch minus 50, yaw 270. Over.

Buzz Aldrin (LMP)

Roger. I'll do that right now.

Bruce McCandless (CAPCOM)

Roger. And if Mike has a minute, we'd like to do a little bit of troubleshooting. It seems he's either flat chested or something because we've lost respiration rate on the BIOMED telemetry. That is, the ZPN trace down here is flat.

Buzz Aldrin (LMP)

He was shaving a little bit ago. He might have just let it slip. Hold on a moment.

Michael Collins (CMP)

All the blasted wires are all connected, is all I know.

Bruce McCandless (CAPCOM)

Okay, Mike. We had a request that you disconnect the yellow connector from the signal conditioner and verify that it looks okay, reconnect it and then, if you would, check the two electrodes that are placed one on each side of your lower rib cage. Over.