Word: aldrin
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...seismometer went to work immediately. It recorded and transmitted to earth evidence of the tremors caused when Aldrin hammered tubes into the lunar surface to collect core samples. It also registered the thud when the astronauts dropped their backpacks from Eagle's hatch. But the first test of the laser reflector failed when a beam shot from California's Lick Observatory missed the reflector by about 50 miles...
...Aldrin, obviously itching to join Armstrong, asked: "Is it O.K. for me to come out?" As soon as he touched the surface, he jumped back up to the first rung of the ladder three times to show how easy it was. Then, delighted with his new-found agility despite the 183 Ibs. of clothing and gear that he carried, he became the first man to run on the lunar surface...
Fifty-three minutes after Armstrong first set foot on the moon, Houston urged him and Aldrin to move within camera range. "The President of the United States would like to say a few words to you," Mission Control advised. The President has been eager all along to associate himself with the mission. Now, as both astronauts stood stiffly at attention near the flag, Nixon told them: "This certainly has to be the most historic phone call ever made. . . . All the people on this earth are truly one in their pride of what you have done, and one in their prayers...
...remaining time, Armstrong and Aldrin scooped up about 60 Ibs. (earth weight) of rocks for one of the lunar sample boxes. Using a core sampler, Aldrin was to have dug some 13 in. into the moon's surface, but he had to hammer the tool vigorously to drive it no more than 9 in. deep. "The material was quite well packed," he said. "The way it adhered to the core tube, it gave me the impression of being moist." The astronauts managed to collect 20 Ibs. of rocks for the sample box that was supposed to hold sorted and identified...
Attached to a leg of the lunar module's lower stage, which would remain on the moon when the upper portion blasted off, was the already famous "We came in peace" plaque signed by President Nixon and Apollo 11 Astronauts Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins. Also to be left behind: medals and shoulder patches in memory of Yuri Gagarin, Vladimir Komarov, Virgil Grissom, Roger Chaffee and Edward White, five men who have died while in Soviet or U.S. space programs...