Apollo 11: The Eagle Has Landed

NASA

Selected lines from NASA's air-to-ground voice transcript of Apollo 11, July 20, 1969. Each line starts with the mission clock (days, hours, minutes, seconds since launch). Houston is Mission Control, Armstrong is the commander, and Aldrin is the lunar module pilot. The lunar module was called Eagle; once it landed, Armstrong named the spot Tranquility Base.

The Landing

04 06 42 10 · Houston: Eagle, Houston. You're GO for landing. Over.

04 06 42 17 · Aldrin: Roger. Understand. GO for landing. 3000 feet.

04 06 42 19 · Houston: Copy.

04 06 42 24 · Armstrong: 1201.

04 06 42 25 · Houston: Roger. 1201 alarm. We're GO. Same type. We're GO.

04 06 42 31 · Aldrin: 2000 feet. 2000 feet, Into the AGS, 47 degrees.

04 06 42 41 · Houston: Eagle, looking great. You're GO.

04 06 42 58 · Houston: Roger. 1202. We copy it.

04 06 43 11 · Aldrin: 600 feet, down at 19.

04 06 43 42 · Aldrin: We're pegged on horizontal velocity.

04 06 43 46 · Aldrin: 300 feet, down 3 1/2, 47 forward.

04 06 44 04 · Aldrin: Watch your shadow out there.

04 06 44 24 · Aldrin: 200 feet, 4 1/2 down.

04 06 44 33 · Aldrin: 5 1/2 down, 9 forward. That's good.

04 06 44 54 · Aldrin: Okay. 75 feet. There's looking good. Down a half, 6 forward.

04 06 45 02 · Houston: 60 seconds.

04 06 45 17 · Aldrin: 40 feet, down 2 1/2. Kicking up some dust.

04 06 45 21 · Aldrin: 30 feet, 2 1/2 down. Faint shadow.

04 06 45 31 · Houston: 30 seconds.

04 06 45 32 · Armstrong: Forward drift?

04 06 45 33 · Aldrin: Yes.

04 06 45 40 · Aldrin: CONTACT LIGHT.

04 06 45 43 · Aldrin: Okay. ENGINE STOP.

04 06 45 57 · Houston: We copy you down, Eagle.

04 06 45 59 · Armstrong: Houston, Tranquility Base here.

04 06 46 04 · Armstrong: THE EAGLE HAS LANDED.

04 06 46 06 · Houston: Roger, Tranquility. We copy you on the ground. You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. We're breathing again. Thanks a lot.

04 06 46 16 · Armstrong: Thank you.

04 06 46 18 · Houston: You're looking good here.

04 06 46 38 · Aldrin: Very smooth touchdown.

The First Step

About six and a half hours later, Armstrong climbed down the ladder while a TV camera sent the picture home.

04 13 22 48 · Houston: Okay. Neil, we can see you coming down the ladder now.

04 13 23 11 · Armstrong: It takes a pretty good little jump.

04 13 23 38 · Armstrong: I'm at the foot of the ladder. The LM footpads are only depressed in the surface about 1 or 2 inches, although the surface appears to be very, very fine grained, as you get close to it. It's almost like a powder. Down there, it's very fine.

04 13 24 13 · Armstrong: I'm going to step off the LM now.

04 13 24 48 · Armstrong: THAT'S ONE SMALL STEP FOR MAN, ONE GIANT LEAP FOR MANKIND.

04 13 24 48 · Armstrong: And the - the surface is fine and powdery. I can - I can pick it up loosely with my toe. It does adhere in fine layers like powdered charcoal to the sole and sides of my boots. I only go in a small fraction of an inch, maybe an eighth of an inch, but I can see the footprints of my boots and the treads in the fine, sandy particles.

04 13 25 30 · Houston: Neil, this is Houston. We're copying.

04 13 25 45 · Armstrong: There seems to be no difficulty in moving around as we suspected. It's even perhaps easier than the simulations at one-sixth g that we performed in the various simulations on the ground. It's actually no trouble to walk around. Okay. The descent engine did not leave a crater of any size. It has about 1 foot clearance on the ground. We're essentially on a very level place here.