[Bazz4CQJ]

Everyone knew about the possibility that the heat shield on Apollo13 could be damaged and there could be bad outcome, so the return was dramatic. With the landing of Apollo 11, the public really didn't know the full drama going on during the descent.

Firstly, the Lunar Module was actually travelling faster than they had measured and Armstrong was seeing his landmarks pass beneath too early. Then the guidance computer crashed 3 times due to being overloaded with radar data, apparently due a to mode-setting switch being set incorrectly. The net result that Armstrong had to ditch the computer, land it under manual guidance, flying it long to avoid a boulder field and ending up with his propellant reserves almost gone. All the voices remain totally calm and if you listen to the tape it's only the calls of "1201 Alarm" (i.e. the computer just crashed) that give the game away. I recall none of this when it was actually happening! Of course, on the following Apollo 12 mission, they landed pretty much on the head of a pin, in easy walking distance to go chop bits off the old Surveyor spacecraft.

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