- Armstrong wraps up four-part interview
- Discusses moon conspiracy theories
- Narrates Google Moon version of landing
Armstrong says he hopes man goes back to the moon. He left his camera there. Picture: CPA Australia/evoTV Source: news.com.au
YOU’RE in the lunar module Eagle and the moon is less than 1000m below you.
Problem – you’ve got to cover that last kilometre and find a safe landing spot before your
fuel runs out in oh, about three minutes.
It’s all a bit lumpy down there. Lucky you’ve got a gun pilot in one Neil A. Armstrong by
your side.
Well, not really. It’s just archive footage through the window of Apollo 11’s famous
lander as it makes it descent to the moon back in 1969.
But Neil Armstrong’s commentary is real.
He sat down with CPA Australia CEO Alex Malley to talk through those final
knuckle-whitening minutes when he realised Eagle’s auto-pilot was trying to set
them amongst a minefield of slopes and boulders.
“Those slopes are steep, the rocks are very large – the size of automobiles,” he tells
Mr Malley in the rare “live” commentary.
“It’s certainly not a place where I want to land, so I took over manually from the
computer, the auto-pilot. Like a helicopter, on out to the west, to try to find a
smoother, more level landing spot.”
Neil Armstrong
Commander Armstrong spots a smooth spot other side of crater.
“I’m running low on fuel. I’ve got less than two minutes of fuel,” he tells Mr Malley.
The actual footage shows Eagle’s rocket engine starting to kick up moon dust.
A 30-second fuel warning pings.
“I need to get it down here on the ground pretty soon, before we run out,” Cmdr Armstrong says.
Then a light thump, followed by the immortal words: “Tranquility to base here.
The Eagle has landed.”
Watch Neil Armstrong’s call of the moon landing at The Bottom Line
The first man to step foot on the moon is just as famous for his reluctance to talk
about his experience, having given the barest handful of television interviews since
that landmark day in 1969.
Even at the age of 82, he’s not comfortable in the public spotlight. Last year, his nerves
were painfully obvious as he presented an Apollo enthusiast’s recreation of the moon landing
using Google Moon images to a US House Committee on Space, Science and Technology.
It’s broken into four parts, which you can watch here.
Believe nothing 