| 1 | 1 | | For one moment, millions of people around the world held their breath and gasped |
| 2 | | in wonder. It was an event people had dreamed about since the beginning of time, and now |
| 3 | | it was actually happening. Neil Armstrong was about to be the first man in history to step |
| 4 | | onto the face of the moon. |
| 2 | 5 | | It was 25 years ago, on 21 July 1969, when Apollo 11, with astronauts Neil |
| 6 | | Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, joumeyed the 238,900 miles to the moon. |
| 7 | | The danger didn't be ar thinking about - if anything went wrong, the men could have been |
| 8 | | literally lost in space.And as this week's documentary, Apollo - When The World Held lts |
| 9 | | Breath, reveals, safety measures were not all they should have been - disaster was a |
| 10 | | distinct possibility. |
| 3 | 11 | | lts presenter, James Burke, was also the link-up man for the BBC's live coverage of |
| 12 | | the moon landing and here he remembers the tension and excitement of th at historie |
| 13 | | day ... |
| 4 | 14 | | I feIt honoured th at I was going to be commentating on such a momentous historie |
| 15 | | event, but I was also nervous. It was to be one of the most challenging tasks in my career, |
| 16 | | witnessed by an audience of around 21 million in Britain. |
| 5 | 17 | | Among my most beloved memories of the event are the first pictures of Earth taken |
| 18 | | from the moon. Nobody had ever seen the planet floating in the middle of nowhere like |
| 19 | | that before. Everyone feIl silent when it came onto the screen. |
| 6 | 20 | | It was very tense in the studio, silent as we listened to the astronauts' clipped |
| 21 | | comments. They didn't sound at all nervous. Then, I heard Mission Control say "Hang |
| 22 | | tight" which meant go ahead, but I knew from my data that they would already be on |
| 23 | | reserve fuel. I prayed for them. |
| 7 | 24 | | A feeling of relief swept over the studio as they touched down safely.We later |
| 25 | | discovered that they only had 17 seconds-worth of fuelleft when they landed. It had been |
| 26 | | an extremely close shave. |
| 8 | 27 | | When Armstrong got out of the module, somebody said in my ear: "Describe what |
| 28 | | you can see", but I couldn't. I couldn't teIl what was the spacecraft, the sky or the ground. |
| 29 | | We were all fumbling around until something finally moved and then we realised it was an |
| 30 | | astronaut in a suit. That helped me work out what everything else was. |
| 9 | 31 | | What the Apollo mission really gave us was a view of the earth which we hadn't seen |
| 32 | | before. It made us realise that we are out there on our own, it's up to us to take care of the |
| 33 | | planet. |
| 10 | 34 | | Today, though, scientists have really lost interest in space travel. The space shuttle is |
| 35 | | never going to attract the same attention as the Apollo moon missions did. |
| 11 | 36 | | I can't see man stepping onto another planet for a very long time. The USA went to |
| 37 | | the moon for political reasons - to beat the Soviet Union to it - and it's fairly difficult to |
| 38 | | imagine that the same political conditions will happen again now the Cold War has ended. |
| 39 | | Besides, the budget isn't there any more - nobody will pay out the kind of money needed |
| 40 | | for space travel.' |
