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Apollo 11 scientist recalls terrifying NASA blunder that changed Moon landing site
Jul 13, 2020
51 years ago, on July 21, 1969, Armstrong famously jumped off the lunar lander Eagle to deliver his “one small step” speech to the millions watching anxiously back on Earth – an achievement of enormous proportion even by today’s standards. Joined by Buzz Aldrin 19 minutes later, the pair’s heroics – along with Michael Collins’ role in the Command Module Columbia – would bring an end to the bitter Space Race by completing John F Kennedy’s goal of putting man on the Moon by the end of that decade. But, in the tense moments before the celebration, there was also confusion and finger-pointing in Mission Control, with questions asked of Professor Farouk El-Baz – the leading geologist on the Apollo programme who was responsible for the selection of the landing site.
The 82-year-old recalled in an exclusive interview with Express.co.uk how he believed his team had calculated everything down to a tee for the astronauts to have the perfect landing on flat ground, but what was being relayed back did not match his expectations.
Remembering the day, he said: “The astronauts themselves made us feel that everything was fine and that they were in control.
“The engineers also made us feel like everything was good because they did say that if for any reason the situation was less than 100 percent perfect they would not launch.
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