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[b]July 16, 1969[/b]: After Apollo 11 disappeared into the clouds, we went back from VIP Site to the Press Site for the T+1 briefing. All is going well. Had to wait a long time for a bus -- major traffic jams in the area. Back at the (Sea Missile) Motel, went swimming. [I was a free-lancer, not on anyone's payroll, so my schedule and time were my own. The weather was very hot and I swam in the pool or ocean several days during my trip.] Returned to the Press Center where copies of NASA voice transcripts of ground- space radio transmissions were available. There was also a "squawk box" which gave announcements from Mission Control. Wrote a story for the Michigan Daily on typewriters at the Center and phoned in the copy to the Daily's news desk. Had dinner at the Holiday Inn. [b]July 17[/b]: I went to the beach and afterwards to the NASA News Center. We then drove to see the Visitors Center at the Cape. Later, went back to the News Center to watch the TV broadcast from Apollo 11 enroute to the Moon. [b]July 18[/b]: Press Center is nearly deserted. At 1:47 p.m. the crew was 165,346 nautical miles from Earth traveling at 3423 feet per second, according to Mission Control on the "squawk box." Off to the beaches for a few hours. Later finished another story for the Daily and phoned it in. [b]July 19[/b]: Not much going on. Reading NASA releases and flight plan to prepare for landing tomorrow afternoon. Went to News Center for LOI (lunar orbit insertion). [b]July 20[/b]: Got up at 9:15 a.m. EDT Went swimming this morning, ate at Astrodine, and came to the News Center to watch the landing. Here are excerpts from my landing sequence notes: [i]LM landing gear deployed 12:15 p.m. EDT "The Eagle has wings" Armstrong. "Right down US 1, Mike" Armstrong Go for DOI 2:49 p.m. (descent orbit insertion) On time DOI 57.2 x 9.1 miles Guidance GO at 3:52 p.m. "Off to a good start, keep it cool" Flight Control PDI 4:05 p.m. "Everything looking good!" Flight "Better than in the simulator!" "Go for landing!" 8,000 feet 4:15 p.m. APPLAUSE!! 4:18 p.m. Down. "The Eagle has landed!" Armstrong "Football-sized crater with huge boulders and we had to fly over it" "No difficulty at all adapting to 1/6 g. We adapted naturally. Relatively level plain with 5 to 50 feet craters. The surface it's gray, considerably darker gray as you look out 90 degrees from the Sun. The surface rocks are coated with light gray but where broken there is a very dark interior which looks like dark basalt." "Looking overhead at Earth, and it is beautiful!" 4:55 p.m.[/i] After the landing, went for an early dinner at the Camelot Inn, waiting for the first walk on the Moon. An announcement is made at 6:20 p.m. that the walk will start about 9 p.m. I go back to the News Center to hear TV and "squawk box" coverage. Excerpts from Moonwalk notes: [i]8:35 p.m. Latest estimate is that EVA hatch opening will be at 9:30 p.m.with first step on the Moon at 9:49 p.m. 9:35 p.m. Running 40 minutes behind timeline. 10:30 p.m. On pressurization 10:56 p.m. First steps by Armstrong: "That's one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind." 11:15 p.m. Aldrin steps on Moon 11:25 p.m. Taking cover off plaque on LM: "Here men from the planet Earth first set foot..." 11:28 p.m. Moon panorama 11:42 p.m. U.S. flag placed on Moon. 11:50 p.m. Presidential call from Nixon to Armstrong, Aldrin. 12:00 a.m. Bulk sample collection. Time-line hour slow. 12:29 a.m. PSEP experiment package deployed. 12:37 a.m. LR3 experiment deployed. 12:47 a.m. Core sample by Aldrin 12:58 a.m. Buzz ascending up the LM ladder and inside. 1:10 a.m. Armstrong up on ladder ending EVA. 1:15 a.m. Repressurization of LM.[/i] [b]July 21[/b]: Got up at 10:30 a.m. and ate at the Astrodine. Went to the News Center where I wrote a story for the Daily and listened to the liftoff from the Moon. Very tired -- astronauts probably more so. July 22: Flew back to O'Hare Airport. Suitcase full of exposed film rolls, flight plans, press kits, lunar orbit maps, voice transcripts, contractor folders, and most importantly, my press pass. I was one of the youngest of 3,300 journalists accredited to cover the first landing on the Moon and this press pass proves it. Afterword I next saw the Apollo 11 crew about 4 weeks later when they came to Chicago on August 13, 1969 for a massive ticker tape parade which wound down Michigan Avenue into State Street and the Loop. I ran along the motorcade snapping pictures of the crew as they went by such Chicago landmarks as the Chicago Water Tower (Fig. 19), Marshall Fields (Fig. 20), the Sun Times-Daily News building (Figs. 21, 22), and the Loop (Fig. 23). Years later I sent some of these pictures to Neil Armstrong along with an Apollo 11 lunar orbit chart requesting his autograph on the map. I mailed these to Armstrong in Ohio early in 1994 but received the envelope back marked "refused." So I decided to gamble and re-send it to Armstrong care of the Astronaut Office in Houston. Months went by and I was sure I would never see the lunar orbit map again. On July 20, 1994 -- the 25th anniversary of the landing -- I went to my mailbox and found one of my stamped, brown return envelopes with a July 19, 1994 Cincinnati postmark. My hands were shaking as I carefully opened the envelope. Inside was my lunar orbit chart inscribed in ballpoint pen on the bottom: "To Dr. Dave Chudwin, Best Wishes, Neil Armstrong." (Fig. 24). I was shocked to receive back the lunar orbit chart, which I had obtained at the NASA News Center in l969 when I was at the Cape. It was even more meaningful to see it in my mailbox on July 20, the 25th anniversary of the landing. And in retrospect, it was probably one of the last mail-in autographs signed by Armstrong before he stopped signing following the 25th anniversary. The autographed lunar orbit map brought to a full circle my trip to Cape Canaveral for the Apollo 11 launch. I trust that someday the U.S. will return to the Moon, and I hope to be alive to cover that launch also.
[i]LM landing gear deployed 12:15 p.m. EDT "The Eagle has wings" Armstrong. "Right down US 1, Mike" Armstrong Go for DOI 2:49 p.m. (descent orbit insertion) On time DOI 57.2 x 9.1 miles Guidance GO at 3:52 p.m. "Off to a good start, keep it cool" Flight Control PDI 4:05 p.m. "Everything looking good!" Flight "Better than in the simulator!" "Go for landing!" 8,000 feet 4:15 p.m. APPLAUSE!! 4:18 p.m. Down. "The Eagle has landed!" Armstrong "Football-sized crater with huge boulders and we had to fly over it" "No difficulty at all adapting to 1/6 g. We adapted naturally. Relatively level plain with 5 to 50 feet craters. The surface it's gray, considerably darker gray as you look out 90 degrees from the Sun. The surface rocks are coated with light gray but where broken there is a very dark interior which looks like dark basalt." "Looking overhead at Earth, and it is beautiful!" 4:55 p.m.[/i]
[i]8:35 p.m. Latest estimate is that EVA hatch opening will be at 9:30 p.m.with first step on the Moon at 9:49 p.m. 9:35 p.m. Running 40 minutes behind timeline. 10:30 p.m. On pressurization 10:56 p.m. First steps by Armstrong: "That's one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind." 11:15 p.m. Aldrin steps on Moon 11:25 p.m. Taking cover off plaque on LM: "Here men from the planet Earth first set foot..." 11:28 p.m. Moon panorama 11:42 p.m. U.S. flag placed on Moon. 11:50 p.m. Presidential call from Nixon to Armstrong, Aldrin. 12:00 a.m. Bulk sample collection. Time-line hour slow. 12:29 a.m. PSEP experiment package deployed. 12:37 a.m. LR3 experiment deployed. 12:47 a.m. Core sample by Aldrin 12:58 a.m. Buzz ascending up the LM ladder and inside. 1:10 a.m. Armstrong up on ladder ending EVA. 1:15 a.m. Repressurization of LM.[/i]
Fig. 19. Astronauts Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong and Mike Collins (left to right) in front of the landmark Chicago Water Tower during their parade in Chicago Aug. 13, 1969 (all photos by the author).
Fig. 20. Astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong (standing in car left to right) in front of Marshall Fields during their post-flight parade in Chicago. One of the famous clocks are visible in the upper right.
Fig. 21. Apollo 11 Astronaut Michael Collins in front of the Sun-Time Daily News Building in Chicago during the Apollo 11 crew's Aug. 13, 1969 parade.
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