For the 40th anniversary of the Moon landing, Popular Science magazine published an article "Ten Things You Didn't Know About the Apollo 11 Moon Landing." The stories are taken from Craig Nelson's book Rocket Men. They bear mentioning again five years later. You can read all 10 by going to the link (or read the book for even more facts), but here are three of my favorites:-- The "one small step for man" wasn't actually that small. Armstrong set the ship down so gently that its shock absorbers didn't compress. He had to hop 3.5 feet from the Eagle's ladder to the surface.
-- When Buzz Aldrin joined Armstrong on the surface, he had to make sure not to lock the Eagle's door because there was no outer handle.
-- The toughest moonwalk task? Planting the flag. NASA's studies suggested that the lunar soil was soft, but Armstrong and Aldrin found the surface to be a thin wisp of dust over hard rock. They managed to drive the flagpole a few inches into the ground and film it for broadcast, and then took care not to accidentally knock it over.
I imagine the Moon missions would have ended that day if the astronauts had locked themselves outside of the capsule. Many, many other little things had to go right for that mission and those that followed. The Apollo missions represent the true triumph of the human spirit, and ingenuity as well.
