NASA - MUST COURTESY FOR DURATION OF STILL
Houston, Texas - 20 July 1969
1. ARCHIVE - STILL of Mission Control during moon landing
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Cocoa Beach, Florida - 16 July 2019
2. SOUNDBITE: (English) Gerry Griffin, Apollo 11 Flight Director +++PARTIALLY COVERED WITH STILLS+++
"When I was a flight director on Apollo 11, I was 33 years old. And I knew it was unique and I knew it was important but the fact that 50 years from now we would have this kind of reaction. I should have thought about it, but it didn't have time."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Cocoa Beach, Florida - 16 July 2019
3. SOUNDBITE: (English) Gerry Griffin, Apollo Program Flight Director
"What was the most dangerous part of the flight, and I still say it was the Saturn launch. You were just sitting on top of a bunch of potential problems called fuel and oxidizer, and if it ever got away from you, it was not going to be pretty and it never did."
NASA - MUST COURTESY FOR DURATION OF STILL
Kennedy Space Center, Florida - 16 July 1969
4. ARCHIVE - STILL of Michael Collins, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, Neil Armstrong prepare for spaceflight
NASA - MUST COURTESY FOR DURATION OF STILL
Cape Kennedy, Florida - 16 July 1969
5. ARCHIVE - STILL of liftoff of Apollo 11 Saturn V rocket
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Cocoa Beach, Florida - 16 July 2019
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Michael Collins, Apollo 11 Command Module Pilot
"What happened if Neil and Buzz couldn't get off the surface of the moon is nothing that we ever discussed. We didn't have to discuss it. We weren't that stupid. We knew darn well if they couldn't get off from the moon they were dead men. I had no landing gear on Columbia. I couldn't go down and help them in any way. So I had a choice. I suppose I could commit suicide or I could head home and I was going to head home."
NASA - MUST COURTESY FOR DURATION OF STILL
In Space - 20 July 1969
7. ARCHIVE - STILL of Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin stepping down on ladder of lunar module
NASA - MUST COURTESY FOR DURATION OF STILL
In Space - 20 July 1969
8. ARCHIVE - STILL of Lunar Command Module
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Cocoa Beach, Florida - 16 July 2019
9. SOUNDBITE: (English) Rusty Schweickart, Apollo 9 Astronaut
"Everybody said, we did it. Everybody owned it. It was, we, people from earth, and it seems to me that the real message here of Apollo is that we now are evolving beyond the limits of Mother Earth. We're gonna be moving out, and in fact we have to in order to continue to evolve and grow and develop."
NASA - MUST COURTESY FOR DURATION OF STILL
In Space - 20 July 1969
10. ARCHIVE: STILL of Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin standing by U.S. flag on lunar surface
ASSOCIATED PRESS
At Sea - 24 July 1969
11. ARCHIVE - STILL of three Apollo astronauts in isolation unit aboard USS Hornet
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Cocoa Beach, Florida - 16 July 2019
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Charlie Duke, Apollo 16 Astronaut
"It's hard to believe that fifty years later, it was really a big deal. I knew it then it was a really big deal. That's how I faced it, it's a really big deal. But not me. The program was a really big deal."
NASA - MUST COURTESY FOR DURATION OF STILL
In Space - 20 July 1969
13. ARCHIVE: STILL of planet earth as seen from lunar orbit
14. ARCHIVE: STILL of Buzz Aldrin walks by footpad of Lunar Module
FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: apus120469
Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins joined other key figures from that era for a look back at the historic moon mission, which began with liftoff exactly 50 years ago today.
Collins remained in lunar orbit, tending to Columbia, the mother ship, while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed in the Eagle on July 20, 1969, and spent 2 ½ hours walking the gray, dusty lunar surface.
"What happened if Neil and Buzz couldn't get off the surface of the moon is nothing that we ever discussed," said Collins.
"We didn't have to discuss it, we weren't that stupid. We knew darn well if they couldn't get off from the moon, they were dead men." he said.
Charlie Duke was the capsule communicator in Mission Control for the Apollo 11 moon landing.
"I knew it then it was a really big deal," Duke said.
"That's how I faced it, it's a really big deal. But not me. The program was a really big deal."
"When I was a flight director on Apollo 11, I was 33 years old," said Gerry Griffin.
"I knew it was unique, and I knew it was important, but the fact that 50 years from now, we would have this kind of reaction. I should have thought about it, but it didn't have time," he said.
Griffin said he thought the most dangerous part of the flight was the liftoff of the Saturn V rocket that was carrying Collins, and the two astronauts who landed on the moon days later, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.
Three years after Collins, Armstrong and Aldrin returned to earth after their historic trip to the moon, Duke also walked on the moon as an astronaut on the Apollo 16 mission.
He is one of only four of the 12 moonwalkers from 1969 through 1972 still alive.
The others are Aldrin, Apollo 15's David Scott and Apollo 17's Harrison Schmitt.
Members on Tuesday's panel said they're looking forward to the day when an astronaut lands on Mars.
"Mars to me is a very complicated mission, Duke said.
"Once you go to Mars, you're on your own, and you got to have confidence in sytems, repair systems, 3D printing systems, whatever to keep that spacecraft working."
