<I heard a crackling sound behind me and turned to observe the top 20 feet of my neighbor's back-yard oak tree go floating over the house to land in the street. I decided it was a good time to go inside.>
Those near-death experiences stay with you, don't they? 1997 seemed to be the year of tornado movies. Maybe the year of hurricane movies is coming up, and you can sell your story. Maybe not feature-film material, but definitely made-for-TV fare.
<By the way, you left out NASA>
Indeed an oversight...
At 500 feet, Armstrong took manual control of the Eagle. Looking out the triangle-shaped window, he did not like what he saw. He steered the craft over a rock-filled crater the size of a football field, and to a smoother spot.
His heart pounded at 156 beats a minute, twice its normal rate.
In Houston, Duke kept spewing out data to the crew. He shut up when Donald "Deke" Slayton, director of flight crew operations, leaned over and whispered, "Be quiet and let 'em land." The only thing the crew needed to know was how much fuel they had left.
It got down to less than 15 seconds' worth.
Mission control was silent.
The eight-ton craft kicked up so much dust it obstructed the astronauts' vision for the final feet of the landing.
The Eagle's four spindly legs touched the moon dust.
Duke: "We copy you down, Eagle."
Armstrong: "Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed."
Duke: "Roger, Tranquility. We copy you on the ground. You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. We're breathing again. Thanks a lot."
Courtesy of Houston Chronicle
chron.com |
