First Steps (post 49)

After the landing at 4:17 p.m. EDT, I went to dinner at the Camelot Inn (my friend Marv had to leave the day before).  The hatch opening and first steps on the Moon were scheduled for around 9:30 p.m EDT. I was much more excited about the landing because getting safely to the lunar surface in the LM was the greater challenge; the first steps were more symbolic.  I arrived back at the NASA Apollo 11 News Center a little before 9 p.m. but the astronauts were running behind. We huddled around the few television sets to see the ghostly pictures from the Moon. Loudspeakers in the newsroom relayed the voice communications. I wrote notes in my pocket diary. Armstrong stepped off the LM at about 10:56  p.m. His famous first words were a little garbled to us at the News Center. “I’m taking a small step for man and a giant leap for mankind,” was how I transcribed it. I monitored the lunar EVA at the News Center until it was completed at about 1:15 a.m. and then went back to the Sea Missile motel to crash.

#Apollo11Eyewitness  Post #49  July 20, 1969 Events

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