First Time

"We'll run out of fuel. You have to let it land as planned," Neil's copilot said.

"How much do we have left?” Neil searched the ground through his window. The landing zone was too rough. Most of the rocks were not very big, but if their craft nicked or even brushed one, it could topple over sideways and crash.

Buzz looked at the gauge and then the clock on the instrument panel. "Eleven seconds."

Neil kept his eyes on the zone ahead where they were supposed to land. The boulders were too big and too close together. "Mission Control, I'm going to manual." He flipped the toggle switch and grabbed the yoke. From the corner of his eye, he could tell Buzz was looking at him. They had trained for years together for this flight. That built trust. Now that Neil had made this decision, he knew Buzz would support him.

"Time?"

Buzz was ready with the answer, "Seven seconds."

Neil adjusted the rocket to keep the craft flying past the zone. As he hoped, the ground was cleaner.

"Time?"

"Five seconds."

Neil flipped the rocket switch off as the lunar lander descended to a soft touchdown.

"Houston, the Eagle has landed." Neil looked over at Buzz. "Time?"

"Three seconds.”

Neil and Buzz gave each other big smiles. They knew that ought to be enough fuel to reach escape velocity.

Someone in Mission Control sent the CBS News Special broadcast up to the moon. The astronauts’ smiles became laughter as Walter Cronkite's voice came from their speaker. "We are seeing history made. This has never happened before.”

WC:267