Headline Sep6,2012/ "A Close call!"

"A CLOSE CALL!"

At 40,000 feet above the Moon surface the landing Radar came to life, blurting information on speed and altitude to Eagle's Computer. From these data the computer continually revised its trajectory calculations, and Eagle shuddered with corrective bursts from the maneuvering jets. Aldrin, meanwhile, began a running dialogue with the computer, checking its height calculation against the data from the radar. As expected, the two disagreed by several thousand feet. Aldrin knew the radar echoes were more reliable, and he planned to tell the computer to accept this data.

To do that, he keyed in a command to tell the computer to display the difference, or delta-H, as it was called. Suddenly the Men heard the high pitched buzz of the Master Alarm in their ears. On the computer display the PROG light glowed a amber WARNING!

"Program Alarm," Armstrong radioed with urgency in his vioce. Quickly, Aldrin queried the computer for the alarm code and "1202" flashed on the display. Aldrin did not know what 1202 meant, but it had to do something with the computer being overloaded with too many things to do. He had never seen this kind of alarm in a descent simulation; now he wished it would just go away.

In Mission control back to Earth, Gene Kranz tensed up.He feared the problems had snowballed. Even as the Powered Descent began, critical data from the spacecraft kept cutting out. In the midst of it all, Kranz
heard his team discussing it and found no panick but solidity. And none more than young Steve Bales, the LM computer expert. Now, with LM's computer threatening to abort the landing, Bales was his important man. But the complexities of the LM's computer were too much for one person. But they all knew that if the alarm kept returning, the computer would crash, and the landing on the moon would have to abort.

Just as planned, 7500 feet up, Eagle's maneuvering thrusters fired to pitch the aircraft forward. In Eagle's windows the flat horizon swung upward into view. And Armstrong looked out at the cratered plains of the Sea of Tranquility, bright in morning light. Armstrong checked the altitude and speed. Three thousand feet up now and descending 70 feet/sec. He heard Mission control say,"You are Go for landing." This was the time for Armstrong to watch for his landmarks and look for a good place to set down. Suddenly the Alarm was back but now he was just well on the death curve. Just 250 feet above the Moon. Armstrong knew he was getting very low on fuel.

Now Armstrong saw that the place he had selected was no good. He nudged the aircraft level and over flew the huge boulders. Ninety seconds of fuel left and 20 seconds of that had to be saved for the abort. And it was crucial to bring Eagle straight down, with no horizontal motion but everything began to get wrapped in a transparent haze. The blast of the engines was rushing and streaking moon dust all over.

Once more,words of caution came from Earth:"Thirty seconds." Then Aldrin said,"Contact light!" Quickly Armstrong hit the Engine Stop Button.Then there was a moment of total exhaustion and quiet."Houston, Tranquility Base Here. The Eagle has landed!" With respectful dedication to the memory of Astronaut Neil Armstrong. And many thanks to !WOW!

Good night and God bless