The Moon landing: Humanity's greatest achievement turns 50—read everything you can

[View this email in your browser]( [Open Ars Technica in your browser]( [Ars Orbital HQ] [Looking at the Earth from Apollo 11] It's finally upon us—perhaps the greatest achievement in the history of humanity will turn 50 this Saturday. To put Apollo 11 and the moon landing in perspective, just think about how hard it is to get to the moon nowadays when we have the equivalent of Apollo computers in our pockets (those old Apollo machines [can't even mine bitcoin like most modern laptops](. [NASA astronauts haven't been back since 1972!]( We could very soon live in a world where no living Americans have set foot on the lunar surface. So for this week's Orbital Transmission, we really had no other choice—we're dedicating this edition of the newsletter to all things Apollo 11. We'll be re-running our epic six-part docuseries, Apollo: The Greatest Leap, on the site all week (nudge, nudge: see below if you haven't seen it yet), but when it comes to the moon landing, there's so much to think about and reflect upon that no single source can encapsulate all of it. Not even Ars, admittedly. —[@NathanMattise]( [Advertisement]( [Image not meant for display] [Image not meant for display] [Powered by Live Intent]( [Ad Choices]( Orbital Transmission 07.18.2019 [The moon]( The moon landing is so monumental, it takes [six parts to document]( Yes, the big anniversary this week centers around Apollo 11's monumental achievement. But the story of how humanity made it to the moon started long before Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin piloted us there. Ars' six part docuseries, [Apollo: The Greatest Leap]( works from that premise, showcasing how the tragedies of Apollo 1, the risk of Apollo 8, and everything in between helped get NASA to july 20, 1969. (We even cheat a bit and let our documentary push forward, covering the famous Apollo 13 rescue and the complex reasons why humanity hasn't been back to the moon in several decades.) Yes, you can [fast forward to the Apollo 11 episode]( immediately if you so choose. [Coronet Space Brandy]( It was off the books, but Apollo 11 was [the first bit of US booze in space]( NASA once tried to officially allow a specific alcohol in space: Coronet Brandy. Apollo 8 was set to fly over the Christmas holiday, and the space agency wanted its astronauts to have a small bit of creature comfort. However, Commander Frank Borman was wary of the potential public perception: "If there's any problem with this spacecraft, they're going to blame the brandy." And so the bottles became unopened collector's items ([the astronauts still had the keepsakes as of Tales of the Cocktail 2016]( and the first (and only) recorded instance of a NASA astronaut bringing booze to space remains Buzz Aldrin, saying a little prayer with altar wine ahead of the moon landing. [Mission Control]( [Mission Control]( See Apollo 11 from the office perspective today If you want a more active celebration of Apollo 11, you're in luck—if you can make it Houston sometime soon. This summer, [the Johnson Space Center opened its doors]( after the completion of a multi-year, multi-million-dollar restoration of NASA's historic Apollo Mission Operations Control Room 2 ("MOCR 2"). The renovations dusted off everything stored in the JSC archives down to the cigarette butts. "When I walked into that viewing room it was dazzling," [famed Apollo flight director Gene Kranz told Ars](. "Overwhelming. All of a sudden you were 50 years younger. I wanted to get to work." If you want to [read up on each and every console now on display]( before booking your trip, you're in luck. When hearing about that "[checklist error]( expect drama If you've watched that new Apollo 11 documentary from CNN/Neon and hear those unexpected beeps as the lunar lander approaches the moon's surface, your heart likely picked up its rate a bit for a few seconds. However, what has popularly been depicted as one of the most dramatic moments leading up to the greatest moment in human achievement [did not almost derail Apollo 11](. Instead, everything went accordingly to NASA's "backup to the backup plan" approach: ". It wasn’t a checklist error: it was an absurd confluence of events that started with a documentation error and ended up with a switch being flicked at precisely the right (or wrong) fraction of a second," writes Lee Hutchinson. "And it was the split second decisions of a bunch of young folks in Houston and MIT that saved the mission from an almost certain abort." 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