Beschreibung:

APOLLO 11 -- MOON LANDINGS Apollo 11 Mission Control Commentary of the First Lunar Landing and First Moon Walk, comprising two mimeographed transcripts of the taped exchanges between the Command Module Columbia , the Lunar module Eagle and NASA's Mission Control Centre, Houston, the first dated 20 July 1969 with commentary timed from 12.59 to 15.55 CDT, pages numbered 295/2-313/1, the second with commentary from 20.34 - 22.31 CDT, pages 330/2-347/1, together 54 pages, 4to , in two blue cloth folding boxes, the first titled on the spine 'First Moon Landing', the second 'First Steps on Moon'. 'THE EAGLE HAS LANDED'. 'THAT'S ONE SMALL STEP FOR MAN. ONE GIANT LEAP FOR MANKIND'. A rare copy of the original transcripts from the Apollo 11 Mission tapes. The first comprises the second-by-second commentary of the touchdown on the lunar surface; a combination of detailed technical data and high levels of excitment and anticipation: 'HOUSTON. You're go for landing... EAGLE. We're go. Hang tight.' 'EAGLE. (Armstrong) Houston, Tranquility base here. The Eagle has landed'. 'CAPCOM. Roger, Tranquility, we copy you on the ground. You've got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. We're breathing again.' Armstrong had named the landing site 'Tranquility Base' immediately after touchdown in the southern 'Sea of Tranquility'. Once on the lunar surface, Neil Armstrong explains that the final phase of landing had been prolonged: 'the auto targeting was taking us right into a ... football sized crater, with a large number of big boulders and rocks.. it required ... flying manually over the rock field to find a reasonably good area'. The tapes record 'Buzz' Aldrin's first impression of the lunar surface, 'it looks like a collection of just about every variety of shapes, angularities, granularities, every variety of rock you could find'. The second commentary opens with the detailed preparations for Neil Armstrong's walk on the moon ('ARMSTRONG. Now comes the gymnastics'), including the opening of the hatch, the positioning of the cameras for the television images, and at 21.52 (CDT), Armstrong's description of his every move, 'I'm at the foot of the ladder ... I'm going to step off the LM now', with the now-famous words, 'That's one small step for man. One giant leap for mankind'. (Much controversy followed as to whether Armstrong omitted the word 'a' before 'man'; Armstrong always claimed to have said it, and recent audio analysis suggests that 'a' does appear on the tapes, but that it was inaudible due to static.) The commentary here includes the first observations of the surface of the moon: 'the surface is fine and powdery ... It does adhere in fine layers like powdered charcoal to the sole and sides of my boots. Maybe an eighth of an inch, but I can see the footprints of my boots and the treads in the fine sandy particles'; 'there seems to be no difficulty in moving around ... we're essentially on a very level place here ... I'll work my way over into the sunlight here without looking directly into the sun ... I'm standing directly in the shadow now looking up at Buzz in the window'. Aldrin joined Armstrong on the lunar surface, the present commentary recording their investigations of movement, taking of rock samples ('it's a very soft surface but here and there ... I run into a very hard surface'), the unveiling of the plaque (see the following lot), taking a first panoramic image and carrying out a solar wind experiment. (2)