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13 Minutes Presents: The Space Shuttle

13 Minutes to the Moon: 9. Tranquility Base

13 Minutes Presents: The Space Shuttle

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, History

9.54.7K Ratings

🗓️ 7 July 2019

⏱️ 39 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Apollo 11 mission is on the edge of failure, minutes away from the Moon landing. Fuel is low, the tech is stretched and astronaut Neil Armstrong is struggling with the rocky lunar surface. He’s flying Eagle like it’s never flown before as he searches for a safe place to land.

Hosted by Kevin Fong.

Starring: Steve Bales Charlie Duke Gerry Griffin

Courtesy of the Johnson Space Center Oral History Project: Neil Armstrong Gene Kranz Jack Garman Bob Carlton

Theme music by Hans Zimmer for Bleeding Fingers Music

#13MinutestotheMoon www.bbcworldservice.com/13minutes

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

I'm Mariana Spring, the BBC's social media investigations correspondent.

0:06.0

In my podcast, I've been investigating what happened to the daughter of a conspiracy theorist who died having rejected chemotherapy.

0:13.0

It would mean the world to me if I could make it that she wasn't just another in the long line of people that die in this way.

0:19.0

How does this reflect the rise of health conspiracy theories on social media and beyond?

0:24.9

The new series of Mariana in Conspiracy Land.

0:27.8

Listen on BBC Sounds.

0:35.3

We pick up just short of where we ended episode 8, more than halfway through Apollo 11's final descent to the lunar surface.

0:45.3

Okay.

0:47.0

7.30 coming up.

0:50.8

That's Neil Armstrong, marking the time elapsed since they started firing the engine

0:55.5

on the lunar module, committing them to a landing. That thrust has slammed the brakes on their

1:02.0

spacecraft with a dramatic loss of speed and altitude, taking them from 50,000 feet to where

1:09.1

they are now at 16,000 feet, 5,000 meters.

1:14.9

Remember, until now, Eagle has been flying on its side, feet first,

1:20.4

with the astronauts lying on their backs looking out into space.

1:24.9

But now the lembs beginning to tilt, bringing Armstrong's head up a little, and he

1:30.9

catches a tantalizing glimpse of the moon at the bottom of his window.

1:36.7

And I have the window. I have that you out to order.

1:40.5

They're in the thick of the fight, having already battled with patchy communications and an overloaded computer.

1:47.0

And they know they're going to overshoot their planned landing site by several miles, taking them into hazardous territory.

1:55.0

But the greatest challenge is yet to come.

1:58.0

Time and fuel are running out, and Armstrong will be forced to fly the lunar module

...

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