Jul 20 1969
From The Space Library
Click here for Apollo 11 VOA Coverage July 20 1969
"We have entered a new era," Dr. Thomas O. Paine, NASA Administrator, told press in Houston following Apollo 11 lunar landing. "The significance of the trip is that mankind is going to establish places of abode outside of his planet earth." In telephone call to White House, Dr. Paine had told President Nixon, "It is my honor on behalf of the entire NASA team to report to you that the Eagle has landed on the Sea of Tranquility and our astronauts are safe and looking forward to starting the exploration of the moon." Dr. Paine said President Nixon had spoken with "excitement and awe in his voice" and mood was that of "considerable tension relieved." NASA planned tentative six additional manned lunar missions over next few years. Dr. Paine praised U.S.S.R.'s cooperation in providing Luna XV information to Astronaut Frank Borman [see July 18]. He also said if Astronaut Neil A. Armstrong had not assumed manual control of LM to steer it from crater during lunar landing, "we might . . . have had considerable difficulty." (McGehan, B Sun, 7/21/69, Al)
CBS presented interview with former President Lyndon B. Johnson which had been taped July 5. President Johnson credited space program with sparking "revolution of the 60s" and said, "We can't discard space. We're just beginning." U.S. had enough money "to do all the things we need to do" in space, education, and health. "What we must have is the determination to do it." He said his last act as president had been to send Apollo 8 photos of earth to 186 leaders of foreign governments. (W Post, 7/21/69, A7)
Astronaut Frank Borman repeated Apollo 8 reading from Genesis at White House service attended by President and family, Vice President, Cabinet members, Congressmen, and members of Joint Chiefs of Staff, and of diplomatic corps. During sermon, Dr. Paul S. Smith, President of Whittier College and member of Religious Society of Friends, said: "It was a philosopher . . . who, two thousand years ago, first recounted a voyage to the moon. Lucian called it The True History but confessed in the preface that he wrote 'of things which are not and never could have been." It was a political satirist's precautionary disclaimer because his real subject was the stupidity of human warfare. His lunar voyagers got caught up in internecine strife between the moon men and the sun men over the colonization of Venus! If there is something instructive in the thought, it may be the implication that after two millennia of philosophy men are still fighting over real estate and still dying in the name of philosophical abstractions, but that a voyage to the moon is just as feasible (though somewhat more expensive) as a trip to Timbuktu." (Wiegers, W Post, 7/21/69, Bl; CR, 7/22/69, H6189-90)
Hours before lunar landing attempt by Apollo 11 Astronauts Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr." Pope Paul VI said at Castel Gondolfo, Italy: "In the ecstasy of this prophetic day, a real triumph for means produced by man for the domination of the universe, we must not forget man's need to dominate himself. Admiration, enthusiasm and passion for instruments, for the products of man's hand, fascinate us, perhaps to the point of madness. . . . This is the danger: We must beware of this worship." (Schmick, 13 Sun, 7/21/69, A4)
Tass announced that Luna XV was still functioning normally in lunar orbit with 109.4-km (68-mi) apolune, 16.1-km (10-mi) perilune, 1-hr 54-min period, and 127° inclination. Sir Bernard Lovell, Director of U.K.'s Jodrell Bank Experimental Station, said Luna XV had conducted two midcourse corrections and speculated that spacecraft was preparing either to land or to observe Apollo 11 landing. (AP, B Sun, 7/21/69, Al)
July 20-21: White House was flooded with congratulatory cables and telephone calls on Apollo 11 landing, from heads of state throughout world. Washington Post estimated half billion persons had watched lunar touchdown on worldwide TV, and NBC said 123 million in U.S. saw it, mostly in their own homes. But 35,000 baseball fans in New York had learned of landing's success when words "They're on the moon" flashed on scoreboard at Yankee Stadium. In New York's Harlem, many of 50,000 attending soul music festival booed lunar landing announcement. At massive "Moon In" at Central Park, enthusiastic crowd of young people watched landing on huge outdoor TV screen in steady downpour and bought "lunar dogs," "Apollo rock candy," and "moon picnic" boxes. Composer and band leader Duke Ellington made singing debut with "Moon Maiden," song he wrote to celebrate Apollo 11 success, taped for ABC. New York Times sold out 950,000 copies of July 21 issue announcing lunar landing and announced it would reprint entire edition July 24 as souvenir. Special Florida Times-Union edition datelined "Moonday, July 21" sold out in Jacksonville within two hours. Estimated 8,000 Western Electric Co. employees left work or failed to show up in protest against being denied access to TV or radios on job during lunar landing. Des Moines, Iowa, TV stations received some complaints from viewers over absence of regular programs. Crime rate fell in Los Angeles, while in Savannah, Ga., 17 prisoners sawed their way out of Chatham County prison branch while guards watched Apollo 11 on TV. At MSC, Houston Welfare Rights Organization members demonstrated around display of LM, calling on U.S. to set new goal-elimination of poverty. (AP, B Sun, 7/22/69; W Post, 7/21/69; 7/22/69; Apollo 11 Mission Commentary, 7/21/69; NYT, 7/17/69, 7/27/69)
Millions around world hailed Apollo 11 landing: Soviet Premier Alexsey Kosygin complimented U.S. on lunar landing and expressed interest in widening U.S.-U.S.S.R. space cooperation during July 21 Moscow discussion with former Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey, who was ending Soviet visit. Soviet TV did not carry live coverage of Apollo 11 lunar landing July 20; Tass announcement was read by newscaster and carried in two-paragraph item on Pravda's front page. Evening paper, Izvestia, accorded story more space and featured photo of astronauts on moon. On TV, Cosmonaut Konstantin P. Feoktistov described landing as "major landmark" and said crew had coped "brilliantly" with mission.
Georgy Petrov, Director of Soviet Institute for Cosmic Research, called Apollo 11 "outstanding achievement" but said more data per ruble could have been gathered by unmanned probes. Statue dedicated to Apollo 11 astronauts was unveiled July 21 in sports stadium at Cracow, Poland. In U.K. Queen Elizabeth watched lunar landing on TV, then cabled President Nixon "warmest congratulations." Prime Minister Harold Wilson expressed "heartfelt relief."
At Jodrell Bank Experimental Station astronomers applauded and director, Sir Bernard Lovell, said that "the future has been revolutionized." David Threlfall collected $24,000 on five-year-old bet that man would land on celestial body before 1971. Betting shop had given him thousand-to-one odds [see May 29]. In Wollongong, Australia, local judge heard cases while watching Apollo 11 lunar landing on portable TV set. Czechoslovakia issued two postage stamps July 21 commemorating lunar landing, while record crowds at U.S. Embassy exhibition tapered off after exhausting supply of Apollo giveaway materials. Five thousand Hungarians walked through American Embassy in Budapest July 21, picking up USIA pamphlet Man on the Moon. In Romania, bouquets were tossed through U.S. Embassy fence to foot of flagpole and several Romanians reported large numbers of Bulgarians were crossing border to watch live TV coverage of Apollo 11.
Cuban government decided not to jam Voice of America broadcast of Apollo 11 lunar landing. In Algiers news was ignored except for announcement in government-controlled newspaper that "the man is on the moon." In Ghana, village chief listening to VOA broadcast feared astronauts might fall off moon if not careful. In Bangkok, freedom for 622 pardoned prisoners was delayed because guards refused to leave TV sets showing Apollo 11. Lunar landing stole top play in Israel and Egypt, from accounts of their fierce fighting at Suez Canal. In Singapore, girl born half hour after lunar landing was named Luna. In Pakistan, boy baby was named Apollo. Prime Minister, Mrs. Indira Gandhi, and Indian Parliament gave standing ovation to Apollo 11 astronauts at opening of day's business in New Delhi July 21.
In Japan, Emperor Hirohito called off customary daily stroll and interrupted lunch to watch Apollo 11 on TV. Iroquois Indians in Brantford, Ontario, Canada, feared lunar landing might plunge earth into darkness and release monsters from earth's core. Their medicine man and chief, Joseph Logan, Jr." had said moon was sacred to his people and "we are not supposed to disturb her." In Taipei, Formosa, Nationalist China Parliament member Hsieh Jen-chao invited Apollo 11 astronauts to attend Moon Festival honoring rabbit which Chinese legend said lived on moon and could provide eternal life. Some devout Moslems in Somalia refused to believe Apollo 11 lunar landing was reality. Following radio, press, and word-of-mouth announcement, fist fights broke out July 21 in Mogadiscio streets between believers and disbelievers. Parents of baby boy born on lunar landing day broke with Muslim tradition and named child Armstrong Abdurahman Osman.
In Brussels workers in radio and TV studios suspended strike during transmission of Apollo 11 mission film. In Brazil several thousand persons cheered as they witnessed televised lunar landing at Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro while church bells rang outside. In Santiago de Chile people rushed out of restaurants to look at moon, forgetting it was mid-afternoon when they learned of lunar landing. While rest of world focused on lunar landing, one quarter of world's population labored through sixth moon of Chinese lunar year unaware of event. Approximately 800 million people in Communist China had heard no news of lunar landing. Only deviation from "total blackout on space exploration" was July 17 story of Astronaut Frank Borman's visit to Moscow, reported by New China News Agency. (C Trib, 7/22/69; W Post, 7/21-22/69; W Star, 7/22/69; NYT, 7/22/69; B Sun, 7/21-22/69; Am Embassy, Prague, Bucharest, Brussels, Budapest, Mogadiscio)
Press in U.S. and around the world underscored Apollo 11s landing on moon and man's first steps on another planet. St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "There is no doubt that the United States should continue to support a substantial space-faring program. Anything else would be a denial of the scientific spirit of the century and the qualities that have made America what it is. But its scope should be measured by findings and probabilities-and one other factor. Future space-faring ought to be a co-operative effort of all nations able to participate, with the benefits to be shared by all." (St. Louis P-D, 7/20/69)
Washington Sunday Star: "A creature that can stand where Armstrong and Aldrin stand tonight-that can, in the future, move among the spheres and literally explore new worlds . . . is unlikely to give up on the hard task of perfecting himself and his life in his natural environment on earth. The God who brought him thus far from a blob of squirming protoplasm . . . is unlikely . . . to let man blow it all now. Here . . . must be the answer to the national debate as to whether we go ahead in space, or whether we tend to our knitting at home. We are bound to do both. . . . The progressive expansion of the physical and spiritual domain of man inevitably will intensify our determination and ability, in concert with other nations, to build a home world where hunger, fear and violence no longer have a place." (W Star, 7/20/69, G1)
William Hines in Washington Sunday Star: "One cannot question the majesty of conception or magnitude of effort that made Apollo 11 possible." But one could ask, "Is this trip really necessary?" One saw in Apollo "that fundamental failing called hubris, which got so many protagonists into hot water in the old Greek mythology. Hubris in English is usually taken to mean prideful arrogance; in ancient Greek the word meant simple insolence. The Apollo enthusiast rejects the concept of hubris; he says we go to the moon not because we are arrogant, but because we are driven, and thereby implicitly rejects the concept of free will and substitutes sappiness for sassiness. The majority asks, 'But if we didn't go, what?, and the minority responds, `If we didn't go, so what?, " (W Star, 7/20/69, G2)
Humorist Art Buchwald in Washington Post: "Sometimes one gets the feeling that the right hand germs in the Government don't know what the left hand germs are doing. This was brought home to me .. . when I read about the millions of dollars that were being spent to see that the astronauts did not bring back a single germ from the moon. Unfortunately, across the page from that story was another that the Army was going ahead with open air testing of nerve gases and germ warfare." (W Post, 7/20/69, B6)
Los Angeles Herald-Examiner: "America's moon program has benefited all mankind. It has brought better color television, water purification at less cost, new paints and plastics, improved weather fore casting, medicine, respirators, walkers for the handicapped, laser surgery, world-wide communications, new transportation systems, earthquake prediction system and solar power. . . The Mars goal should bring benefits to all mankind even greater than the tremendous contributions of the moon program." (LA Her-Exam, 7/20/69)
Baltimore Sun: ". . . it is still almost incredible that in the afternoon of a Sunday on earth two humans found themselves within a vehicle resting on the surface of the moon. Nothing could quite prepare one's mind for that, or for the subsequent moment of climax, the actual setting of a human foot on the substance of our barren satellite. One of the mysteries that had engaged the infinitely inquisitive mind of man is now made tangible. Others remain beyond our planet and upon it." (B Sun, 7/21/69, A16)
Chicago Daily News: "These have been moments to savor-moments in which uncounted millions have shared the immediacy of a turning point in history. This time there was no lapse of weeks or months, waiting for the event to be confirmed. We were all there, bound together by the miracle of communication that intertwined all the other miracles of technology that marked man's first step on a celestial body." (C Daily News, 7/21/69)
Milwaukee Journal: "Superlatives pale before the magnificence of the achievement. but how many years before the astounding performance of Armstrong and Aldrin will seem as primitive as the pioneering work of the Wright brothers?" (MJ, 7/21/69, 14)
Cleveland Plain Dealer: "Man's store of scientific knowledge will be vastly enriched by the landing on the moon. In no other single event in history has there been greater opportunity to unlock the mysteries of the universe." (Plain Dealer, 7/21/69)
London Daily Sketch: "America's moon triumph offers this old world's bickering and jealous people a parable of hope." (B Sun, 7/22/69, Al)
Montreal Star: "The deepest hope for a world starved for some form of symbolism, of an attempt at harmony in place of selfishness and narrow nationalism, came from the astronauts," CFOX Radio, Montreal, broadcast. "Eliminate war? Yes! Eliminate poverty? Yes! But the exploration of space will help us, not impede us, in reaching these goals." (Am Consul, Montreal)
Arbetet, Malmo, Sweden (principal organ of Social Democratic Party) : "No Soviet politician has ever before used such conciliatory tones toward the U.S.A. as did Foreign Minister Gromyko recently in his speech before the Supreme Soviet. . .. This Russian position seems generally to be based on fears of a confrontation with China. . . . One of the side effects can be increased Russian interest in broader scientific cooperation in space research. Nothing else could be better designed for global cooperation, since nothing else gives us clearer testimony that we live in one world." (Am Embassy, Stockholm)
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