“After Apollo 10’s successful mission, the stage was set for us in Apollo 11 to take… a giant leap for mankind”, said Armstrong with sarcastic pomposity. “Something that had to happen regardless of anything. So, we trained for two scenarios. In the first one, everything works fine, the landing radar functions properly, and we get to walk on the Moon. On the second scenario, some sort of malfunction forces us to abort the primary mission and we activate the secondary protocol.”
“You asked me earlier about the video from the surface of the Moon and I told you it was a piece created on Earth as part of the deception. But that was not the only piece created for this. We also recorded a simulated communication with Mission Control to take over the actual communication once we switched to the secondary protocol.”
“Like the trick the cosmonauts pulled with Zond 5?” asked Lucas.
“Similar in content, but in their case they were transmitting live from Earth through the spacecraft’s communication system, while our stuff was prerecorded”, said Armstrong. “The landing audio was a three-minute segment in which Buzz was reciting altitude and speed information with very few interventions from me. It ended with me saying ‘Tranquility base here, the Eagle has landed.’ You can look up this segment in the mission transcript of the 4th day starting at the 6 hour, 43 minute mark.”
“For a long time I suspected that the whole Apollo 11 Moon landing had been part of a ruse”, said Lucas. “But for some reason, my mind, very probably steered by emotions, never made the connection that ‘The Eagle has landed’ phrase was a recording.”
“I know what you mean. If it’s any consolation, that was exactly what I was going to say if we had actually landed.”
“I’m sure. But I’d bet it must’ve been a lot harder living with such a historic quote attributed to you knowing what you knew. Quotes. Plural. Gotta add the ‘one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind’ one. Anyway, what prompted your activation of the secondary protocol?”
“As it turned out we had problems with the landing computer overloading during descent. Mission rules called for an immediate abort in such an event. So after the second 1202, 1201 alarm went off regarding the overload, we switched to the secondary protocol and started transmitting the recording which had been mixed with the corresponding telemetry data needed to satisfy mission control.
“Once the three-minute recording was over and we were on our way back to dock with the command module we reestablished real voice communication with Houston. Our telemetry data feed remained within the secondary protocol to make them think we were on the surface of the Moon.
“The rest of our supposed stay on the Moon followed the same pattern. While I was ‘walking’ on the Moon, I was really in the command module. But, for all practical purposes on Earth, the historic event had taken place. Kennedy’s dream had been fulfilled. America had beaten the Soviets to the Moon. Mankind had taken its giant leap. The public pressure was off, but the feat wasn’t accomplished.
“Unbeknownst to everybody but a few people at NASA, the challenge of landing a man on the Moon continued secretly. And Mike, Buzz and me had the cruelest part of that mission. From the moment we switched to the secondary protocol while flying the Eagle we knew what laid ahead for us. A life of telling people that we had actually accomplished what we did not.
“As soon as I could I took a giant leap of my own and walked away from the limelight . A scenario I never enjoyed to begin with, and one of the main reasons they chose me for that role. It was tougher for Buzz. His bout with alcoholism through the years has been secretly associated with his orders to remain silent about the truth.”
Seventh inning stretch…
Fortunately for the Tribe, Pitcher Edinson Volquez, who had already thrown over a hundred pitches, was out of the game for the Reds. The Indians seized the opportunity to rack-up a couple of runs in their half of the seventh inning.
“When we left Earth,” said Armstrong, “we were ready to land on the Moon. We were all looking forward to a smooth mission in order to avoid the deception. Unfortunately, such a scenario was not on the cards for us.
“It was then Apollo 12’s turn at bat. Their official mission objective was to achieve a precise landing. Not surprisingly, a spot near the Surveyor 3 landing site was selected for it. Remember that Apollo 8 had proven the Surveyor probe could relay all the communication and telemetry data to carry on the secondary protocol if needed.
“They too were ready to truly land on the Moon, but as destiny would have it, as soon as they had cleared the tower during takeoff their Saturn 5 rocket was struck by lightning twice creating havoc in their electrical systems. Five days later when Pete Conrad and Al Bean attempted their Moon landing the LM started experiencing electrical failures. They had no choice but to activate the secondary protocol. Immediately after that, the Apollo 12’s ‘Moon surface data’ was transmitted through Surveyor 3’s communication system. That’s why their video camera supposedly got damaged and there’s no video from the surface of the Moon. That’s also why there’s no retroreflector on their official landing site.
After seven…
The Reds opened the bottom half of the seventh inning with a single, but new Indians pitcher Jensen Lewis took care of the next three batters in easy fashion. After seven, the reds lead the Indians by a score of 6 to 4.
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