The lift-off was watched across the world. More than a million people crowded the roads around Cape Kennedy in Florida, where rockets had been launched into space since February 1958. Across the United States the nation stopped to watch.
Suddenly at Honeysuckle Creek the frantic activity of the previous few weeks slowed dramatically. All of us were glued to our television sets. In Houston, Mission Control personnel were staring at their monitors, too caught up in the moment to send us messages. It was too late to change anything now.
During lift-off, the most dangerous time of a space mission, a tremendous explosion is harnessed to lift the spacecraft beyond the pull of Earth’s gravity. A team in flame-protection gear were on hand to help the astronauts if anything went wrong, but we all knew that if there was an error, the chances of survival were slim.
The countdown started . . . 20 seconds and counting . . . 19 seconds . . . 18 seconds . . .
At eight seconds to lift-off the giant Saturn V rocket engines, building up a force equal to 180 million horsepower, shot out flame, so bright that it stung the human eyes watching it. Shock waves thundered across the countryside.
‘All engines running! We have lift-off!’
On 16 July 1969, at T-minus zero, 9:32 am Houston time, 11:32 pm Australian Eastern Standard Time, we watched as the rocket was released from the hold-down clamps.
The massive rocket seemed to rise slowly at first, far too slowly to ever leave Earth. None of the millions of people watching on the ground and on their TV screens will ever forget the sight of it straining to leave Earth.
Flame gushed in a bright torch from its base. The sound of it boomed across the landscape, sending out pounding shock waves that rocked everyone who had come to watch it.
At Honeysuckle Creek awe changed to a sense of relief. The lift-off had been faultless! There was no more hype, just cool-headed calmness as we settled down to three days of ‘routine’ tracking of spacecraft Columbia and its lunar module Eagle, on their long flight path to the Moon.
This was the real thing. Man was on his way to a moon landing.
WHAT DOES IT FEEL LIKE TO BE WEIGHTLESS IN SPACE?
Astronauts report that initially they feel giddy and their heads feel stuffy — a bit like floating in the middle of a swimming pool while hanging upside down. Your body relaxes into sort of crouched-over position, and your arms float up to chest height. If you want to do things at waist level, as we mostly do on Earth, you have to keep forcing your arms ‘downwards’.
It takes about three days for astronauts to get used to ‘free fall’ and to learn to pull their legs up rather than bend down, and to belt themselves in if they want to sit down. Some never get used to it and feel sick the whole time.
It also takes a few days for astronauts to get used to being in Earth’s gravity again, once they return from space — they keep rolling out of bed and dropping things. In space anything they ‘drop’ just floats away.
We now know that spending too long being weightless thins your bones, even with exercise. Astronauts also need to be protected from radiation — especially solar flares — that our atmosphere helps protect us from on Earth.