Returning People to the Moon After Apollo pp 18-36 | Cite as
Apollo 11 – Getting There
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Abstract
Early on the morning of July 16, 1969, three of NASA’s most capable astronauts enter the elevator at the foot of the gantry to the side of the rocket and ride up the 320 feet (98 m) to the Apollo spacecraft on top of the Saturn V. Neill Armstrong takes the left seat, Buzz Aldrin the center and Michael Collins is on the right. To squeeze everything in, and to cushion the astronauts during the high-g loads of takeoff and re-entry, the seatbacks are attached to the floor and so the astronauts are lying on their backs staring up. They spend nearly three hours running through checklists, responding to instructions from the controllers, checking dials, and waiting for liftoff.
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