Apollo 11 crew prelaunch press conference: transcript

Key points

• Armstrong opens by crediting Americans' craftsmanship and the earlier Apollo flights, and says the crew is ready to fly.
• Aldrin says the crew thinks positively and speaks of when, not if, they land on the Moon.
• Armstrong says nothing has been prepared for his first words on the Moon, and a successful touchdown will be the highlight.
• Collins says he will be tending the command module while Armstrong and Aldrin are on the surface.
• Asked about fear, Armstrong says training erases most unknowns and the crew has no fear of launching. He calls an 80% mission success estimate reasonable and says safety odds are far higher.
• The crew wishes the Soviets success with Luna 15, and Armstrong says a conflict with their orbit is very unlikely.

Chapters

1. 0:06Introductions and Armstrong's opening statement
2. 2:15Public confidence and crew fatigue
3. 5:05Collins's role and first words on the Moon
4. 8:27Mission goals and the Soviet Luna 15 probe
5. 11:37Fear, danger and mission success odds
6. 14:35Rescue limits and confidence in the lunar module
7. 17:32Lunar orbit rendezvous and simulator training
8. 20:53Men versus machines and the president's visit
9. 23:16Flying solo, anticipation and rescue planning
10. 26:13Apollo 10 gyrations, sleep and a day off

Full transcript

0:06I don't think either one of them are mine. Could I have your attention, please? We're now ready to proceed with our news conference. At this time, I'd like to introduce the astronaut crew for the Apollo 11 mission. Luna Module Pilot Edwin Aldrin, Spacecraft Commander Neil Armstrong, and Command Module Pilot Michael Collins. We'll now hear from Neil Armstrong. After a decade of planning and hard work, we're willing and ready to attempt to achieve our national goal. This is possible because very many Americans across the nation have dedicated themselves to quality, craftsmanship, and ingenuity.

1:05We're dependent, too, on the successes of the previous flights, the unmanned flights and the manned flights, Apollos 7, 8, 9, and 10, whose crews have done a magnificent job of preparing the way for us. I'm sure this American ingenuity and American craftsmanship has given us the best equipment that can be made available, and we're very happy to be ready to fly. I guess we are ready for your questions.

1:43Thank you, Neil. We have a panel here of four newsmen who will ask questions of the astronauts this evening. These four panelists are representative of the more than 3,000 newsmen who are here to cover the Apollo 11 launch at the Kennedy Space Center. The first question we'll have from Mr. Walter Cronkite of CBS News. Gentlemen, out there at Merritt Island, you all look very relaxed, and I assume that you're all quite confident.

2:15But I remember, Colonel Aldrin, at Houston at a news conference last week, you've had some concern that the public might be a little overconfident. You suggested that the shouting ought to come after the mission and not before it. Do you feel that the public is putting too much hope on this landing on July 20th? I feel that we're seeing about the type of reaction that many of us were hoping for, and that is a very enthusiastic public.

2:51That has great confidence in what our nation stands for and what our space program's aims have been and what we hope to carry out in a few days for that American public. Do you think, Colonel Aldrin, that perhaps we ought to use if a little more in describing the flight timeline here instead of, say, when you land on the moon? Are there still a lot of unknown quantities in this thing?

3:23Oh, I don't believe so, Walter. I think we're quite able to use the term when. We certainly are thinking positively. We've been thinking positively over the past many years in preparing for this flight. And, of course, in the last several months, everything that we've been doing has been very positive in its nature. And, you know, I think we're quite well suited to say when we land, not if.

3:57Next question from Mr. Al Rossiter, Jr. of United Press International. Mr. Armstrong, there has been some concern in the past about Apollo crews becoming too fatigued by intense training in the final weeks before launch. How do you feel at this point in time? Well, it's certainly a very hard preparation time in getting ready for flight, and we have been working hard ever since our assignment to this Apollo 11.

4:32However, our pace has certainly not been unreasonable, and we think that we're certainly not unduly fatigued, and we're ready to fly. Next question from Mr. Everett Clark of Newsweek magazine. I'd like to ask Michael Collins, the forgotten man of Apollo 11, if he could tell us exactly what he expects to be doing up in that command module at the time that Neil Armstrong steps out on the lunar surface.

5:05Well, primarily just tending the store, Mr. Clark. As you may realize, the command module is a very complex vehicle, and just to do nothing inside it requires a good deal of switch-drawing and a certain amount of attention. So I expect to be keeping the command module ready for Neil and Buzz's return the next day, and I'll be quite busy doing that. Next question from Mr. Joel Shurkin of Reuters.

5:35This is for Mr. Armstrong. There's been speculation about what the first man on the moon will say when he gets there. Will you prepare something ahead of time, or will it be prepared for you, or can we expect a spontaneous exclamation? Well, certainly nothing has been prepared for me, and our attention during the training period and up till now has been focused on how to do the job and how to do it best, and not so much with what might be the emotions of the moment.

6:11I think that would be impossible to predict, And so I do not plan to guess at this point what my emotions might dictate, if anything. As a matter of fact, I think perhaps the highlight for those of us in the LEM will probably be a successful touchdown. I really look forward to that the most this time.

6:45Mr. Cronkite. Neil Armstrong, I'd like to explore that a little further. I'm sure that, oh boy, will be an understandable reaction when you put down there, but the world probably is expecting a little something more than that. Magazines have done articles about it, and there's great speculation. You must have had thousands upon thousands of suggestions, and some of them from some pretty high places, haven't you? Well, we certainly have had a large amount of mail from a very interested public, and it's a great pleasure for us to find that the public is so interested in the details of the program and its various facets. I think this is one area that's probably captured an imagination of many people that are better prepared to look at this sort of subject than

7:53we are, but we really haven't had the time or opportunity to get those suggestions, the attention they're due. Haven't the public relations people suggested anything to you, Neil? No, they haven't. Okay. Mr. Rossiter? Colonel Aldrin, would you be satisfied if you just achieved a successful landing and takeoff, but for some reason could not step out on the lunar surface and collect the first samples of the moon rock?

8:27Well, I think it's been fairly clearly stated that we're going to feel that we've accomplished a successful mission if we land men on the moon and return them safely. And I believe that is the primary mission as stated. We would like to add as much as we possibly can to this for the return from this flight and also to maximize the benefits that will be able to be obtained from previous or the succeeding flights.

9:01We'd like to solve as many of their problems ahead of time and give them as much advice on how to get more return for our lunar flights. Mr. Clark. Well, Colonel Aldrin, following that up, the Russians have Luna 15 on the way to the moon, and there's some speculation anyway that it might be on its way up to scoop up a sample of the moon and bring it back. You're assuming a pretty good flight rather than just...

9:36A landing, an immediate takeoff, and you're hoping to get samples. If the Russians scooped some of this up automatically and brought it back so that they retrieved the first samples of the moon, would you feel a disappointment? I'm sure that all of us would. We'd like to return with everything that we've set out to do on this flight. I think the Russians are to be congratulated on their launching.

10:09Of course, I don't have any more information, or perhaps a good bit less information than many of you people as to what the objectives are of this flight. They have been rather congratulatory on our successes in the past, and I think that we feel the same way. We wish them the most success that they can have, and we hope that they have and share the same wishes toward our flights. Mr. Armstrong, if Luna 15 turned out to be a lunar orbiter, and it was in an orbit that gave us any concern about possible conflict with our orbit, do we have the fuel budget, the extra fuel that we would need to vary our orbit, or would that make you miss your landing site?

11:05That's a very difficult question to answer. I think the probabilities are nearly infinitesimal that that would be an actual case. We have very many objects in space orbiting the Earth at this time, and yet we don't concern ourselves with not launching into Earth orbit in order to leave for the Moon. Mr. Sherkin. For Mr. Collins, what four events in the flight, in order if you can, do you consider the most dangerous? Well, I don't know.

11:37The most dangerous items are those that we've overlooked and not devoted enough attention to in our preparations. And, of course, I have no idea at this time what, if any, they may be. I hope there are none. Mr. Cronkite? I would just pass the note here, as you gentlemen probably know out there at Merritt Island, a large part of the press is here in front of our desk, and we represent all of them. And a very noted Italian lady journalist and interviewer, Oriana Fallaci, asked a question in direct line with that.

12:14Could you describe your emotions as regard that prime human emotion, fear? Do you harbor any fear, or how would you describe your attitude just before flight? Any one of you, or all. No. Well, I certainly wouldn't say— Why don't you draw a straw? I wouldn't say, Walter, that fear is an unknown emotion to us.

12:50Fear is characteristic particularly of a knowledge that there may be something that you haven't thought of and feel that you might be unable to cope with. I think our training and all the work that goes into the preparation for flight does everything it can toward erasing those kinds of possibilities.

13:21And I would say that as a crew, among the three of us, really have no fear of launching out on this expedition. Mr. Rossiter? Along those same lines, Mr. Armstrong, I've heard that your mission has been given by some people an 80% chance of total mission success. Do you agree with that? Are those the rough general figures that you would come up with? Thank you.

13:55I don't have a lot of statistics at hand, but I think that's a reasonable estimate. That's in terms of mission success. That is accomplishing everything we set out to do. I think that's a reasonable estimate, certainly our chance of safety is far greater than that. Mr. Clark? I've got a question for Mr. Collins, if the lunar module gets off the surface and back into an orbit that is lower than 50,000 feet, it seems to me you would probably try to bring the command module down to rescue it.

14:35Can you tell us what the absolute minimum is, what the lowest altitude to which you could bring the command module is for sort of a rescue of the limb? Thank you. Well, you're very close to the limit when you say 50,000 feet, given the fact that some mountains are probably in the vicinity of 20 or 30,000 feet high. We would be prepared to go down to the absolute limit, and it would be a decision that would be reached by mission control based on their best data on what orbit the LEM was in and how low it would be necessary for me to go to effect a successful rescue, and I'm sure I'd be happy to abide by their decision.

15:19My guess would be it would be somewhat less than 50,000, but not very much less. Mr. Sherekin? Mr. Aldrin, is there anything about the lunar module that bothers you? Do you think NASA could have made it sturdier or maybe put springs on the bottom? No, there's nothing that I can think of that concerns me. We would always like to have a little bit more fuel, but I think that that's a natural reaction of a pilot to have a little bit of extra protection stashed away in the hip pocket.

15:56We feel that there's much confidence in the Delta V or the... Fuel margins that are available, and certainly throughout descent, we will be very closely monitoring these as will the emission control. And we feel that it is quite a natural thing and should be quite easy for both the mission control and for us on board to be able to identify any potential shortcomings in the LEM systems, and there'll be many, many people looking at each and every bit of telemetry that comes back to the Earth, and there will be thousands of people on call to give advice should any be needed.

16:51I feel very confident of this vehicle. I think it's done a very good job in the two previous flights, and I certainly feel it, it's ready to perform this mission which it was initially designed for. Mr. Cronkite? Having come this far down the road toward putting men on the moon, you men in particular, do you see any... Any other approach to accomplishing this than the one we've taken? Looking back eight years and knowing what we know now, might we have done this better, more efficiently than we've done it?

17:32Well, as you know, Walter, all the three major approaches to the lunar landing strategy, that is the one that used the rocket to go directly to the moon and the same vehicle to fly back, The second strategy that used assembly of vehicles from various launches in Earth orbit and then an expedition to the moon and return. And the final method, the one that was chosen, the Lunar Orbit Rendezvous, wherein the vehicle combination is sent to the moon and then one section detached and sent down to the lunar surface, are all capable of doing the job.

18:11I think those of us that have participated in the development of the Apollo spacecraft and the rendezvous techniques necessary to make that a realistic way of going between the moon and the Earth believe that it's the best way. It certainly was the one that was... Promised to be the least expensive and the one that would use the least time.

18:43And we're very comfortable with this, one of several approaches that would have worked. Mr. Rossiter? Mr. Armstrong, on Apollo 9 we had a red rover call sign during his spacewalk. How do you and Colonel Aldrin plan to refer to yourselves during your EVA? We just expect to use our names. Mr. Clark?

19:15This is for Neil Armstrong. You can't make a landing on the moon without going there, as we keep being reminded, and yet you have to practice it as nearly as possible, and you do this with simulators of various kinds. I guess you even flew a helicopter the other day, maybe as a warm-up. How do you feel about the fidelity of these simulators? In other words, how close do you feel you have come now to having really practiced what you're going to face next Sunday?

19:48Our simulators are amazing devices. They give unbelievably good fidelity. In terms of the cockpit, the scenes you see out the window, and the responses to your maneuvers, and engine thrusting, and so on. We've also been very fortunate, and they've given us very good reliability in past months, and it has been the thing that has made the preparation of the crew possible for launching this summer.

20:22Simulators can always be better, however, and I'm quite certain that when we actually get into the flight environment, we'll find a lot of things that are different than they were in the simulator. Has your crew had as much simulator time now as the 9 crew and the 10 crew did? I don't have the numbers available to me, but I suspect they're very comparable. Mr. Shurkin.

20:53This is for anyone who cares to answer. The Russians seem to feel that machines can do almost everything a man can. Why are you going? Why are we sending men and not machines? Well, I think we believe that... Men can do many of the things that machines can do, that an adequate or a reasonable mixing of the two to accomplish missions in space is required, and we must learn where each type of a mission has its place.

21:29certainly in the exploration of the moon. Both types can be used quite well as we've evidenced from the surveyor program that's given us amazing results. We feel that there are many things that rely on judgment on the spot and we feel that this is where the manned flights will really come to their own in the future. Mr. Cronkite, gentlemen, I understand that everybody out there at Merritt Island and here well is a little tired of this problem that came up in the last couple of days, but it's a matter of the president not or being disinvited to come down after he was invited by you to be present. And at a news conference this afternoon, Dr. Charles Berry had one more word on the matter. He said that he repeated what he said before about the need for The medical security for you gentlemen, and that applied to the President as well, but he also said he did not know whether it would be beneficial for the President to have seen the crew before liftoff psychologically. I wonder, you, some of your colleagues have felt that it would have been beneficial. Neil?

22:46Well, I certainly wouldn't attempt to make judgments in preventive medicine or fields of those kinds with which I'm not an expert. It would have been a great pleasure for us to see the president, and it was very kind of him to offer to join us for dinner.

23:16I look forward to seeing him sometime after the flight. Mr. Rossiter? Colonel Collins, you will be flying the command module alone for some 28 hours, I believe, around the moon. Do you expect any difficulties in flying solo for that length of time? I believe it's the longest time the command module has been flown solo. No, I really don't, Mr. Roster. Of course, Dave Scott before me and also John Young have done precisely the things which I must do. It's going to take me a little bit longer to do them, but I don't think that is especially germane.

23:52I do have one complaint, however, I'd like to point out to those of you particularly in the television business that I have no TV set on board, and therefore I'm going to be one of the few Americans who's not going to be able to see the EVA, so I'd like you to save the tapes for me, please. I'd like to look at them after the play. Mr. Clark? This is for Colonel Aldrin, but it really is for all three of you, if you care to answer it.

24:27I wonder if you're as tense for your own flight as you are when you're waiting for other astronauts to go up. For example, Apollo 7, 8, 9, and 10. Do you feel any more excited or uptight for your own flight than you do for other people's? Well, there's no doubt that when you're lying on your back on top of the mighty Saturn V that there's a different feeling than when you look up and see one of your compatriots doing the same thing.

25:09I think I would maybe sum up my feelings in a word of anticipation. This is what, to me, characterizes my feelings right now as I look forward to the next few days. Mr. Sherkin? This is for anyone who cares to answer. Do you think NASA made a mistake in the early days when they planned Apollo, for not planning for a rescue, the capability of rescuing you in case you're coming to trouble?

25:43I certainly don't. I think that a rescue mission at this time is beyond our state of ability, certainly beyond our financial ability to fund. And I think the approach that was taken, namely building the safety into the spacecraft, is the proper one for this stage of spacecraft development. Mr. Cronkite? Uh, Neil, uh...

26:13We heard earlier, after the flight of Apollo 10, that unless you found the answer to the wild gyrations and the firing of the ascent stage of the LEM during that flight, that you wouldn't go. And yet, we haven't heard that you've solved the wild gyration problem. What are you doing about that? I think we understand the nature of the difficulty that came up with Apollo 10, even though we cannot precisely ascribe the difficulty to a certain failure.

26:55And our procedure is one where we have procedurally implemented methods of circumventing the problem, and should it occur, we have procedures that we'll be able to cancel the kind of problem we might get in. Mr. Rossiter? Mr. Armstrong, you and Colonel Aldrin are going to be on the moon for almost a day. Do you expect to be able to sleep during your rest periods in the lunar module?

27:32Well, I don't know about Buzz. I suspect I'll be surprised if I'm able to get sound sleep on the lunar surface, but fortunately our flight plan doesn't require that. We have adequate rest on both the night before and the night after the one in question, and I think even if my worst suspicions are true, we'll be in fine shape. We have time for one final question. Mr. Clark?

28:03You have what amounts to a day off tomorrow. What do three men who are about to go to the moon and make a landing do with a day off? Did you crack that, Mike? Well, I plan to sleep, lie in the sun, and read the flight plan again. That completes the conference. Thank you very much, gentlemen, and good luck from everybody here. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Source and licence

Recording: File:Apollo 11 Crew Prelaunch Press Conference.webm by NASA (Taken on 15 July 1969), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

The transcript is machine speech-to-text by the TidyTools Audio & video transcriber; the summary, key points and chapters were written by Claude from that transcript. Both may contain errors: check the recording before quoting it.