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i believe that this nation should commit

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itself

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to achieving the goal

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before this decade is out

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of landing a man on the moon and

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returning him safely to the earth we

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choose to go to the moon in this decade

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and do the other things not because they

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are easy but because they are hard

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because that goal

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will serve to organize and measure the

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best of our energies and skills

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the date was may 25th 1961.

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thrust into a race for international

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space supremacy

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president john f kennedy passed the

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torch to a young national aeronautics

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the complex sophisticated space shuttle

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of today with its ability to routinely

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carry six or more people into space

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began as a tiny capsule where even one

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person felt cramped the mercury program

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the seven flights of project mercury

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proved that humans could survive in

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space

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the next step was gemini expanding our

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reach

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the two unmanned and 10-man flights of

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project gemini subjected man and

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equipment to flights of up to two weeks

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in duration

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america thrilled to the first spacewalk

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the cumulative experience of these early

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man flights gave nasa a foundation of

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confidence for its next project

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apollo the national effort that

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fulfilled a dream as old as humanity a

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human on the moon

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from mercury to apollo the space program

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depended on the goddard space flight

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center for its link to earth

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for goddard was the home of the manned

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space flight network the central control

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for 29 ground tracking stations four

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tracking ships and eight specially

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modified tracking planes

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these were scattered around the world to

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keep in constant communication with the

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astronauts in their vehicle

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for a manned mission to the moon project

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apollo would need a monster rocket

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called saturn 5

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saturn 5 was just one item on nasa's

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long shopping list

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years of testing and designing went into

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preparing astronauts

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rockets and equipment for the first

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lunar landing

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cape canaveral soon to be named cape

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kennedy needed a building 525 feet tall

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where the saturn v the apollo spacecraft

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and the moon landing ship could be put

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together atop a track carrier as big as

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a baseball diamond

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before humans could land on the moon it

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was necessary to learn about the

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in those days we were not at all sure

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about what the space environment was and

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we were very concerned about

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the

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picture taking ranger spacecraft sent

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back thousands of lunar photographs

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before crash landing into the lunar

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surface

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as the time grew closer to the historic

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moon landing guided crews checked and

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rechecked every circuit every antenna

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every console to assure that nothing

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would go wrong during this landmark

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mission

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and we were we had the responsibility of

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testing these facilities

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from an operation standpoint utilizing

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the facilities of nascom

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and we

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we supported 24 hours a day for a

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monthly period of time

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during a program called we used to call

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it agnoff but it's apollo goss

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qualification navigation program

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where we used to track lunar orbiter

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with the 30 foot antennas parabolic

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antennas which we called usb antennas

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that were located at the demand space

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flight stations around the world

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as far as preparation for the mission

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and troubleshooting circuits when they

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would fail

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i like to think of it and i used to call

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it then the great db witch hunt because

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we had made promises to the network that

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we could exchange test tones between our

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center and the remote tracking stations

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and get those test tones back plus or

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minus three db which is a pretty

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stringent requirement for the

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air-to-ground

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astronaut voice relay circuits

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the man destined to put the first

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footprint on the moon was commander neil

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a armstrong

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a former nasa test pilot who had

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experience in space during project

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gemini

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edwin e aldrin jr known as buzz who

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would be the second man on the moon had

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a doctor of science degree in

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astronautics

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michael collins with a bachelor of

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science degree was to fly the apollo

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command ship in parking orbit around the

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moon while his fellow crewmen explored

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below

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armstrong went aboard at 6 54 a.m and

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took position in the apollo's left hand

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five minutes to lift off and still

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t-minus 15 seconds guidance is internal

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12 11 10

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9

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perhaps a million americans came to cape

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kennedy to see the astronauts off

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so did 3 000 newsmen from 56 countries

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half of the u.s congress and the vice

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president of the united states

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former president lyndon b johnson an

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avid space program supporter and mrs

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johnson were among those who followed

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the apollo 11 liftoff

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millions more watched the launch on

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immediately following launch

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the 30-foot antennas at goddard's

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merritt island tracking station picked

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up communications with the spacecraft

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then handed the circuits off to the

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ground station at grand bahama island

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then bermuda followed by the tracking

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ship vanguard in the atlantic ocean and

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so on around the world

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goddard was the control center for all

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the ground stations that were around the

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world that we're going to be supporting

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and that we're supporting the manna

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flight program

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nascom's the central hub of the nasa

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communications network and still is to

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this day

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which means all of the signals coming in

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from the remote tracking stations reach

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goddard before we hand them off to other

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facilities but during apollo everything

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came into goddard first so anything that

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was said

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as an example the the astronaut voices

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would be in a digital format from the

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spacecraft but when they reached the

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tracking stations they were put into an

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analog form and traveled that way into

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goddard where we conferenced all of the

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voice circuits together and then handed

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them off to jsc to houston

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views of their home from the apollo

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spacecraft reminded earthlings the world

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over of how fragile their planet is and

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of the need to preserve and protect its

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resources

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the pictures they saw and the video

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coverage we have today would look like

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nothing more than gobbledygook without

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the special camera and processing

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techniques developed by a team of

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goddard engineers

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not only did they have a couple modes of

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operation which were simply let's try

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this if this doesn't work but

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we also had a very limited bandwidth and

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we the grand equipment had to

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reconstruct the picture so that would be

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usable the picture as transmitted

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would not be able to be telecast on a

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home receiver

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as viewed it would be a very flickering

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picture that

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would not be too usable except for

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possibly an engineer evaluation

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when the camera on the lunar lander

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began to transmit pictures as it

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approached the moon the goddard team

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received the signal at a special

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processing facility set up in sydney

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australia

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people were just

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so excited and they actually set up

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television monitors in

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the uh i believe it was called peace

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cross the main square in sydney where

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thousands of people came out to to

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witness this

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contact light

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okay engine stop

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aca had a defense

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boat control both auto decent engine

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command override off engine arm off 13

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is in we copy it down eagle

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uh

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tranquility base here the eagle has

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landed

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the first word may have been houston but

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the first people to hear it were

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goddard's voice controllers

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it's

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the primary package was a seismic

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package the

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two of detailed moonquakes

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and a

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laser retro reflector package which is

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quite small

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but it had 64 cube reflectors in it

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so they could use their lasers from the

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earth and

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find to fine-tune the distance between

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the earth and the moon

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those small retroreflectors are still

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used today

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by bouncing lasers off these lunar base

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reflectors goddard scientists continue

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to learn about the movement of the

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earth's crustal plates with the same

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accuracy as when they were first placed

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on the moon

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not long after noon the next day the

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21st

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the astronauts fired the ascent engine

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and launched eagle on the first leg of

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what was to be a triumphant return to

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earth

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apollo 11 splashed down at 12 50 p.m

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eastern daylight time on july 24 1969

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about 900 miles southwest of hawaii

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two goddard satellites ats one and three

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were used to relay television coverage

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of the recovery operations to an anxious

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world the big thing that we did and i

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think well because it was spectacular

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because everybody saw it was the

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television through our microwave system

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on the ats spacecraft at one time we

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planted a little

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12 15 foot antenna

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on the flight deck of the carrier and

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actually transmitted

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to live television from the

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carrier from what was going on on the

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deck of the carrier

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via the ats satellite back to the

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networks it was the only possible live

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call live television to the whole world

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could see what was going on and of

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course included in that

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was the the actual recovery

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apollo did more than reach for the

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future

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it refreshed our spirits and heightened

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our awareness of the human potential

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for the united states apollo provided

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renewed confidence

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that given the resolve resources and

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commitment of a free people

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the u.s can lead mankind in the great

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we lived through an era

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and

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part of that era was the the time that

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john kennedy said

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i challenge this nation to put a man in

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orbit and return him safely within this

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decade

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uh pursuant to that i don't think any of

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us will ever forget that

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famous day in dallas

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and then to put the men on the moon and

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bring him back safely was quite

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a monument memorial and i think all of

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we were a pretty young organization i i

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think i was in my 20s and i think just

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about all of the uh

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the voice controllers and the contractor

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workforce were were people in their 20s

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and possibly early 30s

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and it was a just a very exciting time

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for us i mean we would put hours and

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hours and hours of work in and we were

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proud to do it because we did see our

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piece in the puzzle

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and what our what our own personal

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accomplishments and we felt quite proud

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that we were part of bringing that data

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back to them because

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there was a whole purpose to get science

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data and that's what we did

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i think the biggest satisfaction was

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that it enabled everybody in the world

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to see something

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that was a one-shot one-time affair

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which was the first step

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and that's basically what we worked on

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and

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as other speakers that i've heard speak

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said that we worked a lot of long hours

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and

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that worked on that program probably

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agrees that uh they didn't notice it it

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was uh just too exciting to uh to to be

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concerned about the hours you spent it

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was a unique project and

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we haven't been back in a long time and

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it is something that

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we were really proud to be a part of and

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every country we went to they were all

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proud to be participating well it was a

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great thing for

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for for the united states

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it was a great thing for nasa