Apollo 11 death speech - photo

[mklotz]

I worked on the design of the Apollo AGS (Abort Guidance System)...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo...uidance_System

so I am more than a little familiar with the details of the lunar landing. My colleagues and I were all too aware that the lives of the astronauts depended on our work and that knowledge drove us to be extremely meticulous in out designs and plan for all the possible failure modes. Nevertheless the combined complications of the separation, descent, landing, ascent, reattachment phase of the mission made many of us, myself included, very pessimistic about the mission. Watching the TV that July night was one of the most stressful experiences I've ever had. I'm glad I never had to listen to Nixon's speech.

On a related note, I'm beyond enraged by the morons who claim the landing was faked. They should all be collected, packed in a can and dumped on the dark side of the moon.