According to the well-known tale, 1969. on July 20, Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon from the Apollo 11 Eagle unit, and then gave his memorable speech: „one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind”. However, according to the original plans, this would have taken place later, reports IFLScience.
Since there was a need for an exciting landing, they figured out that low fuel and maneuvering between huge craters made their situation even more difficult. Instead of the Eagle lander’s on-board computer (the 16-bit computer of the day), Armstrong was forced to switch to manual control and finally put the device down on the moon after a tense 13 minutes.
And here is the new part of the story: After landing, the astronauts were understandably under a lot of tension, so they were allowed to rest for several hours. (according to Apollo Control records.)
This gave Buzz Aldrin and Armstrong time to eat and get some sleep before starting their extravehicular activities. In the end, the last astronaut left the lander a little earlier than the planned landing on the moon.
(The change in the schedule also had an impact on broadcasting, as Australia’s Honeysuckle Creek station was thus in the best position to broadcast the first few steps on the surface of the Moon) (source: IFLScience.)
Arthur: The tale never ends…
