In the Shadow of the Moon Page #5

Lovell:

It wasn't until we rolled over

that we actually saw the Moon

for the first time.

We were just 60 miles

above the craters,

and, you know...

we were sort of like three school kids

looking in a candy store window,

and we forgot the flight plan,

here we are, just 60 miles away.

Man:
Oh my God,

look at that picture over there!

Wow, is that pretty!

[Shutter clicking]

You got a colour film, Jim?

Hand me a roll of colour, quick.

[Mixed chatter]

Just grab me a colour.

A colour exterior.

Lovell:
We took photographs

as much as we could

and, of course,

we took the photograph

of the famous

Earth rise around the Moon

and I have to credit Bill Anders

for taking the picture.

Uh, he claims it

all the time, anyway!

Man:

Calm down, Lovell!

Lovell:

Well, I got it right...

Oh, it's a beautiful shot!

Lovell:

And of course, Christmas Eve,

being around the Moon

on Christmas Eve,

we thought this would be

a very auspicious time to say something.

The three of us selected to read

from the Old Testament,

and we had it in fireproof paper

in the back of our flight manual.

Man:

"In the beginning,

God created the Heaven

and the Earth

and the Earth was

without form and void.

And darkness was upon

the face of the deep.

And the Spirit of God

moved upon the face of the waters

and God said,

'let there be light'.

And there was light."

Collins:

I thought it was a very nice touch,

it fit very nicely into getting away

from all this machinery,

and let's get down into,

sort of, the fundamentals

of what makes all this happen,

why are we here.

I liked it.

Man:
We close with

good night, good luck;

A merry Christmas and

God bless all of you,

all of you on the good Earth.

Lovell:

When we came back,

there was a lady in Dallas, Texas,

who was an atheist,

and I don't have

anything against atheists,

but she sued us.

For the mixing of...

Church and State,

and she said that

was inappropriate.

Maybe it was, I don't know.

[Music playing]

Bean:

At that time, we were all practicing

to go to the Apollo 11 site,

Sea of Tranquillity.

Because we had

three different crews training.

Apollo 11

was going to make the try in July

and then two months later,

we'd make it if they didn't make it,

and then if we didn't make it,

two months later

in November, Apollo 13.

So we had three chances to get to the Moon

by the end of the decade.

And so when Neil and Buzz and Mike

were assigned to Apollo 11

we knew they were going to make

the first shot.

They were a really,

really good crew,

they got along really well.

Aldrin:

Mike was always the easy-going guy

who brought levity into things.

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