Did you know that the first meal consumed on the Moon was Holy Communion?
As Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin waited for the okay to open the door of the Lunar lander, Aldrin got on the radio and contacted Ground Control. “I would like to request a few moments of silence. I would like to invite each person listening in, wherever and whomever he may be, to contemplate for a moment the events of the past few hours and to give thanks in his own individual way,” said Aldrin.
Following his request for a moment of silence, Aldrin picked up the chalice. “I poured the wine into the chalice our church had given me. In the one-sixth gravity of the moon the wine curled slowly and gracefully up the side of the cup,” wrote Aldrin, in a 1970 article for Guidepost magazine. At the time, Aldrin, who was an elder at Webster Presbyterian Church in Webster, Texas, obtained permission to bring the wine and bread and to administer the sacrament of communion to himself.
Aldrin wanted to broadcast the event to the entire world but the Atheist Madelyn Murray O’Hair, who became famous for her efforts to separate Church and State, was indirectly responsible for the broadcast not taking place. O’Hair had sued NASA the year before because the Apollo 8 astronauts read scripture from the Book of Genesis while orbiting the moon. Although the lawsuit was eventually dismissed, NASA didn’t want to incur another lawsuit.
The 54th anniversary of the moon landing is on July 20th. In celebration of this “giant leap for mankind,” here are some more interesting facts about the first lunar landing:
The navigation computer aboard Apollo 11 had less memory than a smart toaster, yet weighed nearly 70 pounds. The computer had 4Kb of memory and a 32K hard drive.
Neil Armstrong’s famous line as he stepped onto the moon was misquoted. What the entire planet heard was “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” However at a press conference after landing on Earth, Armstrong said he had said the word “a” before man but apparently the radio cut out for a split second.
The speechwriter for President Nixon drafted a “worst case scenario” speech titled: “In Event Of Moon Disaster.” Here is the text of that speech:
“Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace.
“These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery. But they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice.
“These two men are laying down their lives in mankind’s most noble goal: the search for truth and understanding.
“They will be mourned by their families and friends; they will be mourned by their nation; they will be mourned by the people of the world; they will be mourned by a Mother Earth that dared send two of her sons into the unknown.
“In their exploration, they stirred the people of the world to feel as one; in their sacrifice, they bind more tightly the brotherhood of man.
“In ancient days, men looked at stars and saw their heroes in the constellations.“In modern times, we do much the same, but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood. “Others will follow, and surely find their way home. Man’s search will not be denied. But these men were the first, and they will remain the foremost in our hearts.
“For every human being who looks up at the moon in the nights to come will know that there is some corner of another world that is forever mankind.
“Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace.
On that note, because the mission was so dangerous, the astronauts could not get life insurance. Therefore they resorted to selling autographed postcards to pay for their children’s college if they did not return.
The urban legend that the moon landings were fake has already been debunked.
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter took photographs of the six American flags astronauts left on the moon and even showed that the flag the Apollo 11 crew left was lying on the surface of the Moon, due to takeoff thrust. Besides that, several mirrors have been left on the moon, and scientists have successfully focused lasers on those mirrors.
