Apollo 11: Alarm 1202
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Transcript
1. Twelve minutes
July 20, 1969. Two men were twelve minutes from landing on the Moon.
2. At the windows
Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, standing at the windows of a lander the size of a small room.
3. Houston
In Houston, a room full of people watched every number.
4. Program alarm
Neil Armstrong: Program alarm.
5. It's a 1202
Neil Armstrong: It's a 1202.
Nobody in the cabin knew what a 1202 was.
6. Give us a reading
Neil Armstrong: Give us a reading on the 1202 program alarm.
7. Seconds to decide
Steve Bales, 26, had seconds to decide. Abort, or land?
8. The back room
In a back room, Jack Garman, 24, kept a list of every alarm the computer could give, under the glass of his desk.
9. Two weeks earlier
Two weeks earlier, a training alarm had fooled them into aborting a practice landing. So they had written every alarm down.
10. Safe
The computer was overloaded, but it was dropping its less important work and keeping the landing going. Safe, as long as it didn't keep happening.
11. The call
Bales made the call.
12. We're go
Charlie Duke: We're go on that alarm.
13. Boulders
Then a new problem. The computer was steering them into a crater full of boulders.
14. Armstrong flies
Armstrong took over and flew it himself, looking for a flat spot.
15. Sixty seconds
Charlie Duke: Sixty seconds.
Sixty seconds of fuel left.
16. Thirty seconds
Charlie Duke: Thirty seconds.
17. The Eagle has landed
Neil Armstrong: Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.
18. Breathing again
Charlie Duke: You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. We're breathing again.
19. A list on a desk
The first Moon landing nearly ended in an abort. A list on a desk kept it going.