Contact across the Solar System

To the Moon Again

In July 1969, after two more test flights, the Americans were getting ready to land some astronauts on the Moon, in their Apollo 11 mission. Kalna and Ilmuth wanted to see the spacecraft depart, so the two arranged to go to Cape Kennedy again. Several other residents went there also, and they met early in the morning of July 16 at a Titusville beach, to stake out a spot on it. They listened to their radios as the launch preparations continued, with numerous technicians watching over the rocket's status. The countdown entered its last minute with the Saturn V rocket's tanks being pressurized, and then,

"12 - 11 - 10 - 9 - ignition sequence start - 6 - 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 - 0"

The rocket made huge clouds of smoke, then,

"All engine running - liftoff - we have a liftoff - 32 minutes past the hour - liftoff of Apollo 11"

The rocket was on its way, long plume of flame and all. It was watched by large numbers of Earthers, and video of its launch spread across the SSC. Orthon and Firkon answered lots of questions about it from their fellow Venusians and Martians, and on Titan, Ramu sort of got dragged into doing so on account of his association with George. He had to do a lot of catching up on Earther spaceflight.

"I saw parts of their rocket drop off. Is that typical?"

"Yes, that's what they do with all their outer-space rockets. They do it because those parts become dead weight as their fuel gets consumed."

"Do they try to recover those parts?"

"As far as I know, they don't."

The launch provoked reactions in the SSC like

"That? For getting to their moon? Is that a joke? Tell me again why Earther spaceflight is worth noticing."

"You've got to give the Earthers credit for going as far as they have with their laughably primitive technology."

"I can't say that I'm very happy with it. The Earthers have been building more and more nuclear bombs, and it's already looking like they can attack us from their homeworld."

Back at Cape Kennedy, the launch was a great excuse for a party, not just for the residents, but also for many of the numerous Earthers who showed up for the occasion.

Three hours into the flight, the Apollo 11 spacecraft departed Earth orbit for the Moon, and over the next hour, the "command-service module" orbiter part of it picked up the "lunar module" lander part of it and left the now-empty third stage behind. But by then, both Earthers and residents were departing. That night, Kalna and Ilmuth got a pickup, and they were dropped off near Boston.

They made it home and they followed the rest of the mission by Earther TV and radio.

On July 19, the combined spacecraft went into orbit around the Moon, and on July 20, two of its astronauts went into the "lunar-module" lander, leaving the third one behind in the "command-service-module" orbiter. The two parts separated, and the lander headed for the Moon. Kalna and Ilmuth were with some other residents, to help explain what was going on.

As they approached the Moon's surface, the lander's astronauts radioed back what was going on.

"540 feet, down at 30 [feet per second] ... down at 15 ... 400 feet down at 9 ... forward ... 350 feet, down at 4 ... 300 feet, down 3 1/2 ... 47 forward ... 1 1/2 down ... 13 forward ... 11 forward? coming down nicely ... 200 feet, 4 1/2 down ... 5 1/2 down ... 5 percent ... 75 feet ... 6 forward ... lights on ... down 2 1/2 ... 40 feet? down 2 1/2, kicking up some dust ... 30 feet, 2 1/2 down ... faint shadow ... 4 forward ... 4 forward ... drifting to right a little ... OK ..."

Back on the Earth, Mission Control announced "30 seconds." That was how much fuel remained.

"Contact light! OK, engine stop ... descent engine command override off ..."

"We copy you down, Eagle."

"Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed!"

"Roger, Tranquility. We copy you on the ground. You've got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. We're breathing again. Thanks a lot."

After a bit more chatter, Kalna explained "They were about to run out of fuel."

"The whole spacecraft?"

"Only the descent part of it. They would have returned in their ascent part."

"What's that about a contact light?"

"Their landing gear has probes sticking downward. When the probes touched the Moon, they turned on that light."

"Engine stop?"

"They let themselves drop the last bit, it seems."

Lander astronaut Neil Armstrong's announcement soon became heard across the Solar System in the SSC worlds. Two Earthers had succeeded in landing on another celestial body, even if it was their world's moon, the one next door to them.

Some hours later, these Earther Moon visitors were to try to walk on the Moon. Kalna, Ilmuth, and the other residents were back again for this event. The two astronauts got into spacesuits and Neil exited first. He climbed down, set up a video camera, and climbed down some more, into the landing-gear pad. The camera's video was transmitted back to the Earth, so everybody could see what he was doing. When he stepped onto the Moon's surface, he announced

"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

More words heard across the Solar System. The Earthers were out of their vehicle, walking on that celestial body, and sending back video of themselves doing so.

"Awwwwww" said Kalna.

"At least he isn't going 'Nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah. We won, Russians.'" said Ilmuth.

Everybody got a good laugh out of that.

Neil noted the very powdery soil, how easy it was for him to move around in his spacesuit, and how the descent stage's engine had not made a crater, despite stopping only 1 foot above the Moon's surface.

Buzz Aldrin soon followed him down, and he also found his spacesuit comfortable. The two astronauts wandered outward and discussed the sparkle of a rock: what mineral it might be. They went back and read a plaque on the lander's landing gear: "We Came In Peace For All Mankind".

"Awwwwww".

Then Neil moved the TV camera to make a panorama of images. He had to stop several times on the way to get good images. On the way, he got some pictures of Buzz and the lander. The lander did not come out very well because the Sun was to the left of it relative to the camera.

About the Moon's surface there, Kalna said "Look at how flat it is. The Earthers wanted a very safe area, it seems."

Ilmuth said "I don't blame them. It's their first time. Look at how difficult it's been for them."

"You're right."

The crewmen put up an American flag, one with wires in it to stiffen it. They also noticed what well-shaped bootprints they made. The Moon's soil didn't slump. President Richard Nixon called them to congratulate them, and the crewmen then deployed some experiments on the Moon's surface.

Then it was time to return. They had to climb up the descent part's ladder and get their samples up to the ascent part with a pulley, samples that included 20 pounds of rock. They then went to sleep and departed the next day in the ascent part, leaving the descent part behind.

Three hours later, they docked with the orbiter and they took their samples with them into the orbiter, joining the third astronaut, Mike Collins. They then discarded the ascent part, and five hours later, they left lunar orbit and headed for home.

Kalna and Ilmuth followed the final part of the mission two days later, where the crew's part of the orbiter hit the atmosphere, then used its parachutes, and then landed in the ocean. This time, however, the three crewmen were put in a special trailer out of concern about their bringing back lunar microbes. The two knew that the Earthers had nothing to fear, that the Moon's soil contained hardly any organic material, let alone organisms. But it would be difficult to reveal what they knew to the Earthers.