Posted
on July 24, 2016
In
years past, I wrote about Moon Day, which is the
anniversary of humans taking their first steps on the moon.
Which
is even more historic because those steps were the first steps humans
have taken on any other world.
But
today is the anniversary of another important part of that moon
landing – it is the anniversary of the Apollo 11 astronauts safely
landing on Earth again!
It
was President John F. Kennedy who set the goal in 1961, saying, “I
believe this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal,
before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning
him safely to Earth.”
Well,
on July 16, 1969, the world watched as Apollo 11 took off.
On July 19
we were informed that the astronauts had entered the planned orbit
around the moon.
On July 20, we listened for the momentous words “The
Eagle has landed, and a few hours later we watched (with very excited
“bated breath”) as Neil Armstrong and then Buzz Aldrin carefully
climbed down the Lunar Module's ladder and onto the moon's surface.
Many of us cheered at Armstrong's words, “That's one small step for
man, one giant leap for mankind.”
And
on this date in 1969, the last part of President Kennedy's ambitious
goal was realized – the astronauts were returned safely to Earth.
Apollo 11 splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, and NASA quickly
confirmed that the astronauts were safe.
Here
the three astronauts, wearing biological isolation garments, have
been joined by a U.S. Navy swimmer (also wearing a biological
isolation garment). They are all sitting in a raft next to their
spacecraft, and they are waiting for a helicopter to pick them up
from the USS
Hornet,
which was chosen as the recovery ship for the lunar mission.
The
biological isolation garments (BIGs) were a step taken in case the
astronauts had become infected by some sort of unknown moon germ. We
have not ever discovered any sort of life anywhere other than Earth,
so far – not even germs or bacteria – but we didn't know for sure
whether or not such germs might exist on the moon.
The
astronauts were scrubbed with disinfectant. They had to remain in
isolation (or quarantine) for 21 days! Here they are being greeted
and congratulated by then-President Richard Nixon on the Hornet.
They are inside the Mobile Quarantine Facility. Later they got to
move to a much larger quarantine facility.
And
of course, they eventually got out of quarantine and got to do a bit
of this:
Also
on this date:
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ahead:
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