Astronauts say fear ‘not unknown’ to them the day before lift-off

On this corresponding Tuesday in 1969, Neil Armstrong and the Apollo 11 team were playing the waiting game before lift-off.

Neil Armstrong, left, Michael Collins and Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin on July 14, 1969.

On this corresponding Tuesday in 1969, Neil Armstrong and the Apollo 11 team were playing the waiting game as they counted down the hours to lift-off.

In the final day of preparations for the mission to the moon, Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin were making last-minute checks, and doing a final interview with reporters ­before the scheduled launch just after 11.30pm AEST on Wednesday July 16.

“I wouldn’t say fear is an unknown emotion to us,” Armstrong told reporters. “But I will say that as a crew we have among the three of us no fear of launching and going through with the mission.”

In The Australian’s front-page Countdown to the Moon coverage, this newspaper detailed how close Collins, who was flying the command craft Columbia, would be able to get to the moon if his colleagues Armstrong and Aldrin needed emergency assistance.

“You’re very close to the limit at about 50,000 feet,” Collins said, “but we would be prepared to go down even lower to do a rescue.”

Collins said the moon’s mountains were about 30,000ft high, meaning Columbia could not go down much further than 50,000ft.

The Australian’s coverage ­included a Moon Diary, giving readers a blow-by-blow schedule of what the astronauts would be doing every day of the mission. The front-page story also explained the last few hours of preparation before the launch.

“The men of Apollo 11 will spend most of today in bed,’’ the story read. “While they sleep, the back-up crew, including James Lovell and Bill Anders, who have already flown around the moon, will enter the capsule to test out spacecraft communications. They will face the final medical examination by the chief physician to the astronauts, Dr Charles Berry, and then breakfast before donning their space suits.’’

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Students cheered Armstrong’s words

I was a 25-year-old primary teacher at Embleton PS in inner-city Perth in 1969. On that day, we crammed three classes of students into one room, with a small borrowed TV from someone across the road. I don’t think we had thought too much about it, but the event was being tracked at Carnarvon in Western Australia’s northwest.

The black-and-white images were fairly grainy but the audio was very good. I don’t think any of us were aware of the huge risks involved with the project. When Neil Armstrong moved down the steps and said those famous words, the students broke into cheers.

As an adult and teacher and being more aware of the historical moment, I was overwhelmed to the point of tears and emotion — but I think the students were just plain excited about the moment.

We got them to write a summary of the event.

Ken Tasker, Perth

As an activity the students were asked to write a short summary. Picture: Ken Tasker