The Moon Landing 50 Years – Anniversary Exhibition at The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology 2019
Text: Exhibition curator
The Space Race
July 20, 2019 marks 50 years since Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the Moon. The moon landing is one of the great moments in the history of technology and science, and among the biggest media events of the last century. The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology marks the anniversary with an exhibition that tells the story of the space race and the conquest of the Moon, and invites you to take a seat in Apollo and control the lunar lander to a soft landing. We relive the moon night when “everyone” in Norway followed what happened via TV and radio, guided by space expert Erik Tandberg.
Here you can read about the history behind the moon landing. The space race between the United States and the Soviet Union sprang from the Cold War, but ended with a handshake in space in 1975, when Russians and Americans joined forces and began work on developing the International Space Station together.
Scientific and technological competition in a cold war
The Space Race was a competition for technological and military supremacy between the superpowers the Soviet Union and the United States after World War II. From standing together against common enemies during World War II, the two superpowers now fought for influence in the world. New military alliances were formed, with the Soviet Union in the Eastern Bloc and the US-dominated NATO in the West.
Regional wars and conflicts and major armaments, with missiles and nuclear weapons as the greatest threats, led to a strained relationship and serious diplomatic crises between the United States and the Soviet Union. The Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 was triggered by the Soviet Union's intention to place its weapons on the Soviet-allied island state very close to the United States. For the Soviet Union, this was a response to the deployment of American nuclear weapons in Europe, and other military activities in Russian neighboring areas such as in the NATO country Norway. The Cold War also became an ideological war between the communist state and the liberal state, planned economy versus capitalism, dictatorship versus democracy, or freedom versus tyranny, as US President Kennedy put it in May 1961. It is this constant threat and the tense relationship between countries that has been named "the Cold War". It is estimated that the Cold War lasted from 1945, the end of World War II, to 1991, when the Soviet Union disintegrated and the Berlin Wall fell.
Having the technological advantage in the Cold War was important both militarily and ideologically. Rockets were at the pinnacle of technology, and space travel became an arena for demonstrating technological strength. Space travel was also more about positive values such as science and human achievements than war and destruction, and was therefore suitable for creating excitement and support. In addition, the great prestige and the military and ideological significance of space technology. This made space travel such a high priority area in these years that a space race emerged.
Sputnik: First stab at the Soviet Union
The conquest of space was a high priority goal in both the United States and the Soviet Union. The Americans felt superior in many ways in mastering advanced technology and in having the leading scientific and technical development environments. It was therefore a great shock that it was the Soviet Union that managed the first major space achievement: Sputnik! On October 4, 1957, an R-7 Semyorka rocket lifted a metal ball weighing just over 80 kilograms from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan into orbit around the Earth. It was the world's first artificial satellite. Sputnik "Спутник" was the name, and it means exactly that: Satellite - or companion. Sputnik did little more than send a beeping signal on radio waves via its four long antennas down to Earth when it passed high up there. It was more than enough for the Russians to brag about it, and for the Americans to turn on the radio and have confirmation that they had lost. There was a "Sputnik shock" in the West – no one had any idea that the Russians had come this far, and now the fear of loss of prestige and technological backwater was as great as the fear of what the Russians might come up with to launch a rocket next time.
Laika and Other Animals in Space: Second Stab at the Soviets
Just a month after Sputnik, which was still in orbit, the Russians sent a live dog into space, on November 3, 1957. Laika has gone down in space history as the first large living creature in space. Unfortunately, she died during the journey.
Laika and the other animals were sent into space long before the technology was ready to make the experimental animals survive. The Americans were the first to do this in a lower orbit, when the monkeys Able and Baker were sent in May 1959. Baker became a celebrity in his day, and lived until 1984. But the Russians also won when it came to returning alive from orbit around the Earth: In the Soviet Union, the dogs Belka and Strelka were launched in an early version of the Vostok spacecraft on August 19, 1960. With the American monkeys and Russian dogs safely back on Earth after a space flight, it was concluded that humans could also withstand such stress. Then it was ready for the next step!
Americans in orbit
In the Sputnik year of 1957, the Americans were well on their way to launching rockets in lower ballistic orbits. They also had plans ready for satellites in orbit around the Earth, but they believed they had a greater lead over the Russians. It was a civilian goal to launch research satellites for the International Geophysical Year in 1958. The US Navy handled this with its Vanguard rocket, which was designed for more civilian and scientific use than the US Army's more top-secret rocket programs. When the US was caught off guard by Sputnik, the Vanguard plan was accelerated to at least reach second place by the end of 1957. On December 6, the Americans were supposed to launch the old woman. It went badly: Vanguard exploded on the launch pad in front of packed stands and the cameras and microphones of the whole world. Then all subtlety and artificial distinction between military and civilian technology were put aside and the German Wernher von Braun (who had surrendered to the Americans in 1945 along with most of his team of German rocket experts) was put to work putting the geophysical research satellite Explorer into orbit. This happened with great success on January 31, 1958. Finally, American metal was also in orbit around the Earth, albeit a modest 14 kg. The grapefruit satellite, Soviet leader Khrushchev called it. Sputnik 3, which was launched on May 15, 1958, weighed as much as a car, and was packed with scientific instruments that would provide the Soviet Union's scientific contribution to the geophysical year of 1958. The Americans were still behind, but in June 1958 NASA was established to gather forces, and Wernher von Braun was given the main technical responsibility for the further development of the space program's rockets.
First rocket to the Moon - third stab to the Soviets
With the satellite code cracked in both countries, new goals were set for the space race. The Moon held as great an attraction for rocket builders, space scientists, and political leaders looking for a PR triumph as it has for all people throughout history. Technically, it was now also entirely possible to get a rocket there with a payload of instruments and, ideally, a plaque with a national symbol. The geophysical year was to be crowned by retrieving close-up images and data from the Moon itself.
It turned out to be more difficult than expected to reach the Moon. Both the American Pioneer probes and the Soviet Union with their Luna probes struggled to reach their goal. Luna 1 was the first to approach in January 1959, but a planned crash landing on the Moon instead became a 6,000-kilometer disc boom and the world's first artificial celestial body in orbit around the Sun. In September 1959, the Russians' plan was carried out when Luna 2 crashed on the Moon, released a series of metal discs with the Soviet Union's emblem, and sent data back to Earth. A month later, Luna 3 placed itself in a long orbit around the Earth that allowed it to sneak behind the Moon for the first time and return a series of images of what humans had not seen before. With this, the Soviet Union had clearly won another victory in the race.
The Americans followed up their rather unsuccessful Pioneer program with the Ranger program, where only Ranger 4 in April 1962 was a partial success in that it at least hit the Moon. It was not until Ranger 7 in July 1964 that everything went according to plan, with an American probe for the first time operating on the Moon and returning images as it should. The Russians' Luna program continued to get ahead of the Americans, including by making the first successful soft landing on the Moon with Luna 9 in January 1966.
The purpose of the lunar probes was to gain more knowledge about the Moon. At the same time, they demonstrated that rockets could be sent to the Moon with payloads - and thus, in theory, the first humans.
First man to the Moon!
The American plan to send an astronaut to the Moon had taken shape as early as 1960. The first rough sketches for a three-man space capsule with a separate service module and a separate lunar landing craft had been conceived, and possible paths to get to the Moon had been planned. The spacecraft had already been named Apollo and a very powerful rocket named Saturn was being planned by von Braun and his team. Three of America's leading aircraft manufacturers were invited to propose technical solutions, construction and price for Apollo.
The Russians also had to think about a trip to the moon, but around 1960, chief designer Sergei Korolev was more interested in manned space stations in orbit around the Earth, and on the other hand more ambitious goals such as manned trips to Venus and Mars. But first, they had to manage to get a human into space. It had been three years since Sputnik and Laika, and the world needed more space sensations.
Gagarin: Fourth blow to the Soviet Union
On April 12, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin completed a 108-minute journey that took him into orbit around the Earth as the world’s first space traveler. “Poyekhali! (Let’s go!)” were Gagarin’s words as the Vostok 8K72K launch vehicle lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The trip in the spherical Vostok capsule went according to plan until just before landing, when the speed became so high that Gagarin ejected from the capsule and landed in his own parachute. News of Gagarin’s triumph was reported to the world’s media from Moscow, and Gagarin became a folk hero.
Mercury – the first seven astronauts
One of the things that annoyed the Americans most about Gagarin's mission was that they were so close to being first themselves. The Mercury program began in 1958 as one of the new NASA's first responses to the Russian challenge with Sputnik. If the Russians led with satellites, the Americans were to focus on manned spaceflight!
Mercury was also the name of the single-man space capsule that was launched in October 1958. It was developed by Max Faget and established the conical capsule shape that American spacecraft would adhere to. The astronaut sat with his back to the bottom, and could operate 55 electrical switches and 35 mechanical levers. The goal was to get a human into space, and gain experience with the stresses on astronauts during space travel. The seven selected Mercury astronauts became heroes of their time. They were recruited from among the toughest of the military aviators. They were in hard training and were ready to enter space when Gagarin beat them to it in April 1961. To quickly fight back, the program was accelerated, and Alan Shepard became the first American in space on May 5, 1961, when he made a fifteen-minute "space jump" - a ballistic trajectory up to an altitude of 180 km above the Earth.
To the Moon and back before the decade is over
On May 25, 1961, Kennedy addressed Congress and launched what has become one of the boldest technological goals ever set by a politician: By the end of the decade, the United States would land a man on the Moon and return him safely to Earth. Congress gave its full support and appropriated the first tens of millions of dollars that were required. The American people were not entirely enthusiastic. Opinion polls showed that 58% of the population was completely opposed. The program was still in full swing, and in Houston, construction had begun on the new Center for Manned Space Flight. It was during a trip there in September 1962 that Kennedy gave one of his most famous speeches to 40,000 attendees at Rice University: "We choose to go to the Moon, not because it is easy but because it is difficult. With this speech, combined with the fact that John Glenn had also put Americans into orbit around the Earth with his mission on February 20, 1962, the mood among the American people changed. There was moon fever and Apollo enthusiasm among an increasing number of Americans.
USA and Soviet Union together to the Moon?
President Kennedy had set high expectations and also received criticism at home for his lunar ambitions. The conflicts with the Soviet Union, including in Cuba, meant that many expected more action in closer areas than in outer space. Kennedy tried several strategies in response to this, including in June 1962 when he met with Khrushchev in Vienna and proposed that the two superpowers should cooperate on the moon landing. Khrushchev is said not to have taken it very seriously. However, the idea was not abandoned. As late as September 1963, it was repeated at the UN and from the podium Kennedy asked "Why should mankind's first expedition to the moon be a competition between nations?" This time Khrushchev was more responsive. Kennedy asked the administration to investigate closer cooperation with the Russians in space travel. Ten days later he was killed, and the plans were never followed up.
Soviets to the Moon?
The Russians, on the other hand, were well underway with their lunar probes, which had already spread Soviet flags on the Moon, and returned images the world had never seen before. The Vostok program ended with another propaganda victory when the first woman in space also became a Russian. Valentina Tereshkova was one of five female pilots selected for the cosmonaut program, and on June 16, 1963, she began a two-day journey into orbit around the Earth. The next record for the Russians came with the Voskhod spacecraft in the summer of 1964, when two men were sent into space for the first time. Voskhod 2 managed to beat the Americans' Gemini by one point, when cosmonaut Leonov made the first walk outside a spacecraft in orbit - the first "space walk", before the program was ended early because the Russians were now concentrating on the Soyuz. This new vehicle, which could accommodate three men, was intended as the workhorse for future Russian space travel. And so it was: Soyuz is still the one that brings crews out to the ISS space station.
The Soyuz was planned to be part of various "building kits". Assembling a lunar vehicle in orbit around the Earth was one of the possibilities that the Russians came up with when they received the marching orders to create a plan to send a man to the moon before the Americans. However, this did not come until 1964, and by then it was effectively too late. Further attempts to reach the moon were to be plagued by problems for the Russians.
Apollo to the Moon
The Americans, for their part, rallied strongly behind the common goal of reaching the Moon, which Kennedy had set. Getting there before the Russians would restore honor. To accomplish this plan, the Americans had to develop and test thousands of elements and procedures for both rockets, trajectory calculations, spacecraft design and maneuvering. Astronauts had to be trained and tested to withstand the rigors of space travel. It was also an enormous project to organize and manage. It required the efforts of tens of thousands of women and men, civilian industry and military branches and technology development environments, universities, hospitals and research institutions, as well as political leadership and administration. This mobilization grew rapidly throughout the 1960s. When the program and production were at their peak in 1965, it is estimated that more than 370,000 people were directly involved. The demand for engineering and other experts was great, and thousands of foreigners also found their way to the United States during this period, including many Norwegians.
A simple plane, a three-part spacecraft, and a three-part rocket
The lunar mission was simple in principle: A vehicle with a three-part spacecraft, Apollo, and a large three-part rocket, Saturn V. Then send Apollo into orbit around the Earth using the Saturn V, and then slingshot Apollo towards the Moon until it was captured by the Moon's gravity and entered orbit around it. From this orbit, it would travel down to the Moon and back up again, before returning using the speed from lunar orbit combined with a small rocket push and Earth's gravity. Three days each way.
Apollo consisted of a command module with space for three astronauts, connected to a service module with the necessary technical systems. There was also a lunar landing vehicle at the top of the Saturn rocket's third stage. This was a spacecraft in itself that was to be used to fly from lunar orbit to the Moon and back up to the command module. The lunar lander had to be connected to the command module on the way to the Moon, disconnected for the trip down to the Moon, and reconnected in lunar orbit after the end of the lunar walk. The return trip took place in Apollo's command and service module, before the service module was also disconnected and only the small command module would eventually land in the ocean.
Gemini for testing and training
Although the plan was simple, there were many advanced operations that had to be developed and tested, and practiced by the astronauts in simulators but also in space. Connecting the various modules of the Apollo spacecraft in space required testing and training. The Gemini program was designed for this. Gemini was a two-man spacecraft that in orbit around the Earth was to teach the astronauts how to maneuver, disconnect and connect to other spacecraft, test spacesuits for staying outside the spacecraft, test long-duration space missions, etc. The many technical solutions required for the lunar mission, from large rockets to the smallest details, were also tested in the Gemini program.
Ten Gemini missions were carried out in two years – from 1965 to 1966. Among the highlights of Gemini was the rendezvous between Gemini 6 and Gemini 7 in space, which also set a record for long-duration spaceflight for Gemini 7, which had to orbit the Earth for 14 days to make the rendezvous. “Buzz” Aldrin also distinguished himself with three long “space walks” during the Gemini-12 expedition, totaling 5.5 hours outside the capsule. The Gemini X capsule was on loan to The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology for many years, and could be admired in the exhibitions at Kjelsås from 1986 to 2000.
Apollo from crisis to success
While the Gemini test program was being carried out with great success, Apollo was being developed to take the step all the way to the Moon. The first test of Apollo in Earth orbit was to take place in January 1967. It ended in a tragic accident when an explosive fire broke out inside the command module during a test on the ground. The three astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed Wright and Roger Chaffee died when they were unable to escape the capsule. No one had thought of making an emergency opening. This and hundreds of other problems with the Apollo spacecraft were discovered and corrected. It was not until October 1968 that a manned Apollo launch was finally carried out, with Apollo 7. This was far behind schedule, and the goal of reaching the Moon within the decade seemed unattainable.
Crisis also on the Soviet side
The Russians had also experienced great problems, with the loss of human life, in their quest to be the first to launch a spacecraft that could possibly reach the Moon. It was during the first manned test of the new Soyuz capsule in 1967 that the world suffered its first fatal accident involving a space rocket: Vladimir Komarov died when Soyuz 1 crash-landed due to a parachute failure after an otherwise troubled journey into Earth orbit.
Further developments of the Soyuz were severely delayed. A version called the Zond was designed to follow a long elliptical orbit from Earth to the Moon, and in September 1968 it was launched on a successful mission carrying a test dummy to measure radiation on the way. Zond became the first spacecraft to return to Earth after a lunar mission, and the Russians scored another victory. The Americans became anxious that a living cosmonaut would take the dummy's place too soon, and accelerated the first planned Apollo mission to the Moon.
Earthrise with Apollo 8
After the successful test of Apollo 7, the Americans felt more confident that they were on track to reach the Moon by the end of 1969. Further on the program were tests of the various Apollo components in Earth orbit. However, delays in the production of the lunar landing vehicle led to a change in the original plan. The need for a confidence boost was present, along with a slight fear that the Russians would get ahead of them again, and so it was decided that Apollo 8 would be sent all the way to the Moon.
Just before Christmas in 1968, Borman, Lovell and Anders were launched into orbit around the Earth in a Saturn V rocket and for the first time on a three-day journey to the Moon. On Christmas Eve, they entered lunar orbit and were the first people to see both the far side of the Moon and what would become the most iconic sight of the entire space race: the little blue globe rising above the lunar horizon. “Earthrise” is an image that is almost always on the Top 10 lists of the most famous and significant photographs in world history.
For many Americans, Apollo 8 was a welcome positive end to a bad year, and the completely new perspective of photography was a necessary change. Apollo 8 also meant a final victory for the Americans in the space race: the first people to the Moon. For the Russians, it meant a serious loss of motivation in their somewhat half-hearted attempts at manned lunar travel. In reality, the Soviet Union's program for manned lunar travel was shut down, and efforts were concentrated on new space projects closer to Earth.
The Americans were given a perfect boost for what would become the decisive year: 1969. Now only two attempts remained before the moon landing would become serious. In March, Apollo 9 arrived, which tested the entire Apollo spacecraft with the lunar landing vehicle in Earth orbit, and in May 1969, Apollo 10 conducted a full dress rehearsal to the Moon. Now everything was ready for the great test of strength: the Moon charge.
Apollo 11
The Apollo 11 spacecraft was lifted off from the ground in Florida on July 16, 1969, by the world's largest rocket: the Saturn V. In the capsule atop the 111-meter-high rocket sat the three astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin and Michael Collins. Armstrong was the commander, Aldrin was the pilot of the lunar landing module Eagle, and Collins was the pilot of the service and command module in Apollo 11, which had been named Columbia. All three had backgrounds as military test pilots, all had been on Gemini missions, all were 37 years old, all were 178-180 cm tall and weighed 75 kg. All three were married and had 2-3 children. They calculated that they had about a 90% chance of returning to Earth alive, but only a 50% chance of landing on the Moon exactly as planned. If they failed, the Americans had one more chance to achieve Kennedy's goal of conquering the Moon by the end of the decade, with Apollo 12 scheduled for the fall of 1969.
Barely three hours after taking off from the ground, after one and a half orbits around the Earth, the third stage of the Saturn rocket sent Apollo out of Earth orbit and headed for the Moon. Half an hour into the flight, Michael Collins performed the crucial maneuver they had practiced with Gemini and Apollo 9 and 10, and hundreds of hours in the simulator: Undocking from Apollo, turning 180 degrees, and docking with the lunar landing vehicle Eagle, which was located on top of the third stage of the Staturn V rocket. Then it was just a matter of waiting for three days while the Earth grew smaller and the Moon grew larger in the windows. Apollo 11 entered lunar orbit on July 19, and made thirteen two-hour orbits around the Moon while the crew prepared for the actual lunar journey. Armstrong and Aldrin moved to Eagle, and just before seven in the evening Norwegian time on July 20, they undocked from the command module and began the descent to the Moon and the planned landing site in the Sea of Tranquility.
The landing did not go quite as planned. The two experienced pilots took partial manual control of the craft and found a landing site that was more suitable than the one planned, which turned out to be full of large rocks. The computers responded with angry alarms that the two pilots ignored. After just over two and a half hours of travel, Neil Armstrong was able to report to NASA's command center in Houston, Texas: "The Eagle has landed." It was 3:17 p.m. in Houston - 9:17:39 p.m. in Norway. 102 hours, 45 minutes and 40 seconds had passed since the start in Florida. According to the plan, the two astronauts were to get four hours of sleep and a meal before preparing to go out on the Moon. But understandably, they were too excited to sleep. They suggested getting ready right away and instead do the historic walk three hours later. This would put the historic moment in "prime time" on American television, and for that reason alone it was easy for the bosses in Houston to say yes – in addition, everyone down on Earth was probably just as excited and impatient as the two on board.
For Norwegian television it didn't quite fit, but it might have been an even bigger event. NRK had planned to end the moon broadcast around midnight, and come back on at six the next morning to follow the next historic moment live. For the first time in the history of Norwegian television, the broadcast was extended – without a pre-arranged broadcast schedule. There was a night vigil without a script and almost free dressage on the live broadcast from Studio 1 at Marienlyst. Program host Ragnar Baartvedt kept the show going with the guests, Jan P. Jansen was on the phone from Houston with his partner in the studio, space expert Erik Tandberg, who was full of facts to share during the wait. Kirsti Sparboe and Benny Borg also had several moon-related songs in their repertoire. Something like this had never happened before, and both critics and the general TV audience liked what they saw. Now the summer night between Sunday 20 and Monday 21 July became almost a public festival all over the country, where people stayed awake to follow the events. Thousands of those who still went to bed called the Norwegian Televerket wake-up service and ordered a wake-up call well in advance of the highlight: the actual moonwalk.
400,000 kilometers from Marienlyst, Armstrong and Aldrin prepared to go out on the Moon. It was a complicated suit to put on with many connections that had to be checked and double-checked, so it took a long time. At 03:39 they released the pressure in the cabin and opened the hatch. Armstrong crawled out on his stomach, feet first. On his way down the ladder, he unfolded the TV camera that was attached to the lunar lander, and thus 600 million people on Earth had the opportunity to follow what was about to happen: the actual footstep on the Moon. At 03:56:15 Norwegian time, Neil Armstrong put his left foot down in the moon dust, then his right before releasing both hands from the ladder. He had decided in advance what he would say, and the sentence immediately went down in world history: "That's one small step for (a) man – one giant leap for mankind".
Buzz Aldrin, who has become somewhat unfairly best known for being the second man on the Moon, came out of the hatch about 20 minutes after Armstrong. He joked that he had to make sure the door didn't slam shut. Armstrong had moved the TV camera out onto a tripod on the Moon, and was also ready with his Hasselblad camera as Aldrin went down the ladder and onto the Moon. He spent less time down the ladder than Armstrong, and set foot on the Moon nine minutes after the first man. Aldrin's words were "Beautiful view!" to which Armstrong replied "Magnificent view", to which Aldrin supplemented with "Magnificent desolation", which has been recorded as Aldrin's first words on the Moon.
The two then carried out their planned program while talking to each other and to Houston about what they saw. They attempted to describe textures and colors, the hardness of the ground, the lunar dust, light and shadow while working to take samples of the ground that were placed in small bags that the astronauts put in pockets of their suits.
They then deployed some larger instruments and unveiled a plaque on the lunar lander that reads "We came in peace on behalf of all mankind". After planting an American flag on the Moon, they received a phone call from President Nixon who congratulated them in a short speech. Armstrong then took the famous photo of Aldrin saluting the flag.
Armstrong took a total of 130 photos with his Hasselblad camera. It is mostly Aldrin who is depicted, but Armstrong's reflection is seen in the visor of Aldrin's assistant in perhaps the most famous photo in the series. Aldrin also borrowed the camera and took a picture of Armstrong at the lunar landing vehicle.
Aldrin was the first person back in the lunar lander. They lifted in about 22 kg. of moon rock samples, and laid out a bag with commemorative symbols, including a gilded olive branch and a miniature plaque with signatures from 73 heads of state, including King Olav. They also left behind the emblem of Apollo 1 in memory of the three astronauts who died in this accident, and medallions to honor the deceased Russian cosmonaut Komarov, and Yurij Gagarin – the first man in space.
Armstrong climbed the ladder 2 hours and 31 minutes after he went down. They left behind parts of the lunar suits and other equipment, including the Hasselblad camera, before they opened the hatch and got the cabin pressurized and oxygenated. Now they were going to eat a little and relax a little after a 19-hour hard session. There was no sleep – Houston was constantly busy with new data, it was very cold in the cabin, and it was difficult to find a good sleeping position. Buzz Aldrin had been given the best spot lying on the floor, while Neil Armstrong sat and partially stood leaning up against the starter motor. The only one of the three who got a good night's sleep was Mike Collins, alone in the command module Columbia safely in orbit around the Moon.
The next dangerous part of the journey was to transport the two astronauts back to lunar orbit. The lunar lander's reentry module had its own rocket engine and a couple of tons of fuel that was enough to get it back to lunar orbit 100 km above the surface where it was to be connected to Columbia. The lunar lander's undercarriage was the launch pad. Just before 7 p.m. Norwegian time, the countdown from 10 was started, and the craft took off. It would take five hours, several laps around the Moon and fine maneuvering to reach the rendezvous point for the two craft. The two pilots Collins and Aldrin ensured a completely successful docking in orbit above the Moon at approximately 22:30 Norwegian time, just over a day after landing on the Moon. The hatches between the vehicles were opened, and after transferring the lunar samples and film cassettes, the three astronauts were able to reunite in Columbia. After two hours, Eagle was disconnected and sent into a lower lunar orbit that would guide the lunar landing vehicle on the Moon.
Now Apollo 11 was ready to return to Earth. On the night of July 22 Norwegian time, the engine was ignited for 2.5 minutes, and the three-day journey home began. Just before Earth orbit was reached, the last remnant of the gigantic spacecraft was disconnected – the service module. Now only the small pointed command section with the three astronauts was left. It turned upside down, so that the heat shield there could take away the enormous heat created by the encounter with the atmosphere. It fell freely until the three large parachutes were deployed. Seven minutes later - on July 24 at 17:51 Norwegian time - the Apollo command section landed in the Pacific Ocean.
Finally, the real jubilation could be unleashed in the control room in Houston: Every second of the journey was a moment of risk, and only now did people know that everything had gone well. Kennedy's goal had been achieved: To the Moon, and back safely.
The aircraft carrier USS Hornet was only 24 kilometers away, and sent the rescue helicopter that hoisted the three astronauts on board. In case the astronauts brought harmful microbes from the Moon with them, they were put straight into a quarantine container on board the ship. After a few days, the entire container was transported ashore, and finally the three astronauts were able to meet their wives again - albeit with a window in between.
They had to spend no less than 21 days in isolation before they were finally released. On August 13, they were able to enjoy their freedom to the extent possible when they were paraded through New York, Chicago and Washington on the same day. Hundreds of thousands stood along the route and cheered. Confetti and paper strips fell from the skyscraper windows from the telex machines – “ticker-tape parade” was the name given to such parades.
Now they were given a few weeks off before embarking on a 45-day world tour to 25 countries, called “The giant leap tour”. Norway had hijacked the Scandinavian stopover, and from 10 to 12 October 1969 the three astronauts were guests in Oslo. They met Prime Minister Per Borten and other elected officials at the Storting before being driven in an open car to lunch at the Palace with King Olav, the Crown Prince and Princess – and Erik Tandberg and his wife. There were cheering crowds along Karl Johan, almost like in the American parades. They met the press at the Grand and Erik Tandberg interviewed them for NRK, Swedish Television and Danish Radio in front of a large audience at the Central Theatre.
The astronauts and their wives were able to crown their trip to Norway with a real Norwegian cabin trip to Defense Minister Grieg Teidemann's cabin in Hemsedal and a fruitless grouse hunt. But at least they got to see something completely new – and escape the press, which was omnipresent wherever they went both at home and around the world. The three astronauts had become superstars.
Six more moon trips with drama and declining interest
It was not possible to top Apollo 11. But many more expeditions were planned – the Moon was big and much remained to be explored. The three touring pioneers returned home to join the launch of Apollo 12, and not to take the attention away from it. Led by Gemini veteran Pete Conrad and with Alan Bean and Dick Gordon on the team, the Saturn V took off on November 14, 1969. Conrad and Bean landed on the Moon on November 19, right at the planned "Pete's parking lot" which was close to the previously sent space probe Surveyor 3. The feat was just as great this time, but of course not with the same historical rush and media excitement.
When Apollo 13 took off in April 1970, interest was even lower, and many wondered if the next missions would be halted. However, this changed two days into the journey to the Moon when the message "Houston, we've had a problem" came in a calm voice from Commander Jim Lovell. An explosion in an oxygen tank in the service module put the astronauts in immediate danger, and the entire mission had to be changed from a lunar landing to getting the three back to Earth as quickly as possible. By using the lunar landing craft as a "lifeboat" and mobilizing all the forces in NASA to recalculate the trajectories and find creative solutions to the problems that arose, they managed to save Apollo 13 and the three on board. The whole world followed the drama and could breathe a sigh of relief.
The Americans' first man in space, Alan Shepard, would fly the long way as commander of Apollo 14 in January 1971. Then came Apollo 15 in August 1971, Apollo 16 in April 1972 and the last, Apollo 17 in December 1972. Fortunately, these took place without the same drama. It was an equally great achievement each time, and the programs became more and more advanced and useful for the scientific research the missions could form the basis for.
When Apollo 17 landed near Christmas in 1972, it had already been decided that the fully built and planned Apollo 18 would remain on the ground. The price for each expedition was sky-high, and now the Americans had lost interest and the will to spend money on what was now "only" interesting for science.
Next step: Space stations
When the Soviet Union gave up on beating the Americans in the race to the Moon, they focused their efforts on winning the next duel, which was to send up a space station that could be manned by changing teams of cosmonauts. The Americans had also had thoughts about space stations dating back to the pre-Apollo era, as a possible alternative to the moon mission. Now the United States had begun development of a space station called Skylab – a scientific laboratory in orbit around the Earth. Once again, civilian research was given priority over what clearly also had military interests.
For the Russians, it was a point to both finish first and show the world that the moon landing was only a temporary lead for the United States. With Lunokhod – a large remote-controlled car that explored the lunar surface with a larger radius than the Americans, the Russians had also made their mark on the moon again in 1970. But it was with the space station that the Russians were to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Gagarin, and thus get a double PR effect. And on April 19, 1971, the news came: As a big anniversary salute, the space station Salyut 1 (Russian for salute) entered orbit around the Earth.
It was a great triumph, but strong aftertastes appeared during the summer. The first attempt to man the station a couple of days after the station had been put in place was unsuccessful. Soyuz 10 with the three cosmonauts on board was unable to connect to the station. Thus, the next crew with Soyuz 11 in July had the honor of becoming the first crew to man a space station. They set a record for the number of days in space with their 22 days. It was another great Russian triumph – and even more annoyance in the United States. But it ended in tragedy: when the ground crews opened the capsule after an apparently successful and soft landing in Kazakhstan, they found the three cosmonauts lifeless. They had died shortly after undocking from the station due to a dramatic drop in pressure resulting from the failure of a pressure valve.
The news of the tragedy reached all the world's newspapers the same day, including here in Norway, with unusual openness. The grief was great in the Soviet Union and the sympathy was correspondingly great on the other side, especially among the many American astronauts and others in the space program who knew how high the risks of space travel were. . It had not yet been a year since the astronauts had almost lost three of their comrades in Apollo 13. The margins were small, and an astronaut and a cosmonaut were closer than anyone else to feeling this firsthand.
While the Russians were working to get their space station program back on its feet after the tragedy, the Americans were successful with their Skylab, which went into orbit in May 1973. Experienced lunar explorers such as Pete Conrad and Alan Bean each led the first two crews of three that manned Skylab. A third crew remained on the space station for almost three months. Both the Russians and the Americans gained valuable experience that was taken into account in the planning of larger and longer-duration space stations. The plans for such stations were so ambitious that it was natural to think about international cooperation. It was time to move from competition to cooperation in space.
A handshake in space for a new era
The intense competitive climate between the two superpowers of the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union, was changing. The space race was to become space cooperation. The first initiative came when US President Nixon met with Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev in Moscow in 1972. The two leaders decided that the next great event in space should be something that both countries could be equally proud of, and that could point forward to a new era: a cosmonaut and an astronaut would meet in orbit around the Earth and physically connect the two countries' flagships in the space race, Soyuz and Apollo. In this way, colleagues from each side of the Cold War would meet and exchange warm handshakes.
The two spacecraft lifted off on July 15, 1975, and after two days in separate orbits, the experienced captains maneuvered steadily to a perfect connection. The three Americans handpicked for the mission were Tom Stafford, Vance Brand, and Deke Slayton. Commander Stafford was a veteran with two Gemini missions under his belt as well as the important dress rehearsal for the moon landing, Apollo 10. Deke Slayton was legendary: he was one of the Mercury Seven - the seven selected first astronauts for Mercury. The two cosmonauts, Alexei Leonov and Valeri Kubasov, were both among the most seasoned Soviet space travelers.
Leonov and Stafford's historic handshake finally took place on July 17, in the docking tunnel between Apollo and Soyuz. It was a cordial reunion after several training sessions beforehand during which the five space veterans had become good friends. They also handed out gifts, including they exchanged seeds for trees that were planted in the two countries after the landing. They also chatted together, in both American and Russian, or “oklahomski”, as Leonov jokingly called Stafford’s tentative Russian. They also worked their way through a large planned program of joint scientific experiments. In total, the astronauts from the two countries spent 44 hours together.
The reverberations of the handshake and the Apollo-Soyuz meeting lasted a long time. The last Apollo mission also became historic with the docking, which is referred to by many as the mission that ended the space race that had begun with Sputnik in 1957.
It took almost 20 years before the next major collaborative project. The Russians went it alone with the MIR space station project, and the Americans focused on their Space Shuttle program, which also had a space station element with Space Lab. They also had plans for a larger space station called Freedom.
By the time the Soviet Union dissolved, the MIR project had already taken on a greater international character. American astronauts had also spent longer periods on board the Russian pride. The climate of cooperation from the 1970s was rediscovered, and Russia and the United States decided to abandon their own space station plans with MIR 2 and Freedom, and focus on what would become the International Space Station - ISS. Construction of this began in 1998, and since 2000 it has been continuously manned by an international crew from the United States, Russia, Canada, Japan and the European ESA. Sweden's Christer Fuglesang and Denmark's Andreas Mogensen have been Scandinavia's representatives - we are still waiting for the first Norwegian astronaut.
Now the United States, Russia, Europe and China are preparing a return to the Moon. China made a mark at the start of the anniversary year 2019 by landing a craft on the far side of the Moon, loaded with various cameras, instruments and experiments, including potato plants. Later in the year, an Israeli company sent a partly privately funded probe to the Moon with the American company Space X's rocket.
At the state level, the United States, Canada, Russia, Europe, Japan and China are also collaborating on a possible return to the Moon. One possibility is a lunar base for research and possible exploitation of resources on the Moon for further space travel, e.g. to Mars. A lunar base could be a station in orbit around the Moon or a structure down on the surface. No concrete plans or deadlines have been launched for such a thing, but the United States initiated a program in 2017 that is being actively worked on, and which in turn has increased the flow of money to the American space program. Perhaps it will end in another moon landing before the end of the next decade?
Sources:
NASA various websites including transcribed communication logs, history pages, etc.
Armstrong, Aldrin, Collins: "First on the Moon"
Tandberg, Erik: Various books including Romalderen, as well as articles on Store norske leksikon (Great Norwegian Encyclopedia). Erik Tandberg has also contributed comments to this manuscript, without being responsible for the content.
Logsdon, John: Kennedy and the race to the moon
Other about various journeys and expeditions: Wikipedia
