On July 16, 1969, an Apollo 11 rocket was launched to the moon for the first time from the US Florida spaceport. The launch was accompanied by a strong roar as from an explosion with a yield of two hundred tons of TNT. But few people know what was left behind the lenses of television cameras and press columns, how close the Apollo 11 ship was to destruction. What kind of tragedy, classified for forty years, did the participants in this odyssey manage to avoid?
Landing on the lunar surface was still a dream of John F. Kennedy and became his chosen priority direction of American policy in the sixties of the last century. Gene Krantz was the Flight Director of the US Mission Control Center. The first crew to the moon consisted of American astronauts: commander Neil Armstrong, lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin, command module pilot Michael Collins.
The launch vehicle, the heaviest and most powerful at that time, Saturn 5, was leaked at the start of an explosive fuel and at any moment millions of gallons could flare up from an accidental spark. If the rocket exploded in the first two and a half minutes after launch, the crew would not be able to survive.
It should be noted that the urgent solution of dangerous problems was also part of the space program. At the last moment before the start, technicians still managed to secure the ill-fated valve through which hydrogen fuel entered Saturn-5, and the fuel leak was stopped.
In order not to expose the crew to additional stress, the leaders of the MCC of America did not inform the astronauts about the existing problems with the valve for the hydrogen fuel. In addition, they were deliberately misled about the safety of the flight in any unforeseen event, promising that if during launch a fuel leak occurs and a powerful explosion follows or the engine fails, then their capsule will instantly catapult to a safe distance from the damaged missile. At the same time, a special memo, which was brought to the attention of NASA flight leaders a year before the planned flight to the moon, contained information to the contrary. It talked about the destruction of the capsule of the spacecraft in the event of an emergency during the launch of the rocket.
The information equipment in the flight control center and on board the ship was extremely primitive by modern standards. The on-board computer resembled an electronic clock in its capabilities. And the electronic stuffing of the huge MCC hall today would fit in one laptop.
The moon is two hundred and sixty thousand miles. In a spaceship flight, this distance takes three days. During this period, the Apollo 11 astronauts first encountered an unusual phenomenon. They saw a luminous unidentified object in outer space relatively close to them. At first, the crew members thought they were seeing the last stage of the S-IVB rocket, which separated from the module two days ago, and asked the MCC for its coordinates. Having received the necessary information, they realized that they were not alone in space and were dealing with UFOs, but did not report this to Earth, worried that they would be ordered to stop flying and return. So, the first surprise that occurred during the flight was that the astronauts actually saw UFOs in distant space.
Following the meeting with the UFO, the astronauts were in for another surprise. The Apollo 11 crew members began to observe a strange phenomenon inside the spacecraft. Sparks flashed everywhere in the compartment. They alarmed the crew even more than the UFOs. As it turned out later, during the analysis of the flight after landing, these were fast heavy particles Z, which plow space at high speed, penetrating into the ship and into the human nerve cells. The flashing sparks accompanied Apollo 11 throughout the entire flight, what damage they caused to the health of the crew members, scientists have not fully figured out.
Promotional video:
Having reached the lunar orbit eighty miles away, NASA astronauts began preparations for the lunar landing. Armstrong and Aldrin moved to the lunar detachable module, while Collins remained in the command compartment. To save weight, the lunar module shell was made very thin, no more than two layers of aluminum foil, which, through carelessness, could easily be damaged with a sharp object.
Astronauts did not have a second chance to land on the lunar surface, so they had to fly accurately in a given orbit. However, for some reason, the unit lost its intended trajectory. The lunar module lost radio communication with the MCC, and it became impossible to control the landing from Earth. At this time, the MCC suffered a serious malfunction in the operation of the electronic computer serving the space flight. This was due to an overload of a low-power computer system.
The astronauts on the lunar module were in shock, as they descended almost blindly, without much needed information about the speed, motion parameters, coordinates in space. In response to all their requests, the on-board computer in the command compartment, where Collins remained, issued only an overflow signal and an alarm code. In desperation, the MCC management urgently turned to the young computer genius-programmer Jack Garman, who in a matter of seconds figured out the cause of the error signal and sketched out a new computer code. If the error signal appeared again and again, the computing system of the landing radar would freeze, and the on-board computer would not be able to control the lunar module.
The landing tank was running low on fuel. Armstrong decided to manually control the lunar landing. On the remnants of fuel, the lunar module was heading into the rocky crater of the Moon and, fifteen seconds before the end of the fuel, landed on the lunar surface.
Of all the dangers that await astronauts, the last one turned out to be the most critical at the final stage of the flight. The only takeoff engine on the module could malfunction. During earth tests, he refused in half the cases. Therefore, the then President of America, Richard Nixon, was already preparing an emergency mourning speech about the dead astronauts, which was kept under the heading "Secret" for forty years. But the problem turned out to be in a completely different incident. Astronauts, getting ready to go to the lunar surface, touched the takeoff engine start switch with the spacesuit helmet and it broke off. The Apollo 11 crew managed to return to Earth thanks to a ballpoint pen inserted into the recess of the launch switch.
The astronauts first felt safe after the postponed events only after docking with the command compartment in lunar orbit. Finally, the crew believed that the ship would be able to deliver them, along with the valuable lunar soil, back to Earth.
Despite all the cosmic twists and turns, eight days later Apollo 11 returned home safely …