Unexpectedly for everyone, during an interview dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the flight to the moon, a NASA engineer shared previously unknown details of work during the lunar mission 'Apollo 11'.
On July 20, 1969, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin completed a seemingly impossible mission to the moon. The pair made history when they stepped onto the lunar surface, ending the space race and leaving the American flag on the surface. Armstrong jumped smoothly from the lunar ship Eagle and gave his one small step speech with some coolness.
However, NASA engineer David Baker reported that flight control was far from calm. Here's what he said in an interview with The Times:
“In preparation for the Apollo mission, I had mixed feelings about what we were doing. When you are young, you have a God-given right to change the world, this is how all young people feel. '
“We saw absolutely no limits to our capabilities. We really thought we had changed the social, economic and, in fact, emotional perception of human society on the way to the space age. '
Mr. Baker, who was a space systems engineer from 1965 to 1984, said the tension was very high as they were trying to do something they had never done before.
'We have never done this before, the wait was really very difficult and when we got to this landing point we saw a lot of things that gave us a heartbreaking streak of moments.'
“While the actual landing itself was just the beginning of a three-minute stretch to assess the condition of the spacecraft and the possibility of landing on the surface, the emotional uplift pushed everything aside.”
Mr. Baker elaborated on how the entire mission made him feel physically ill at times.
'I personally felt physically ill, as if I had vomited, but I managed to focus on observation. It was only the beginning of a 22 hour mission to the surface, and this watch was crucial. '
“Suddenly there was a unifying feeling. Oh my God, we have really achieved this.
It was a very strange otherworldly feeling, as if we were the whole team on the moon together. '
