Landing Eagle: Inside the Cockpit During the First Moon Landing

by Michael Engle

Fifty years ago, in a small, fragile spacecraft designed for only one purpose—landing on the Moon—two American astronauts prepared to fly that spacecraft from its 10 mile high orbit above the Moon down to a landing on the Sea of Tranquility. It was a sea in name only. It was actually a bone dry, ancient dusty basin pockmarked with craters and littered with rocks and boulders. Somewhere in that 500 mile diameter basin, the astronauts would attempt to make Mankind’s first landing on the Moon.Neil Armstrong would pilot the Lunar Module “Eagle” during its twelve minute descent from orbit down to a landing. Col. Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin would assist him. On the way down they would encounter a host of problems, any one of which could have potentially caused them to have to call off the landing, or, even worse, die making the attempt. The problems were all technical-communications problems, computer problems, guidance problems, sensor problems. Armstrong and Aldrin faced the very real risk of dying by the very same technical sword that they had to live by in order to accomplish the enormous task of landing on the Moon for the first time.Yet the human skills Armstrong and Aldrin employed would be more than equal to the task. Armstrong’s formidable skills as an aviator, honed from the time he was a young boy, would serve him well as he piloted Eagle down amidst a continuing series of systems problems that might have fatally distracted a lesser aviator. Armstrong’s brilliant piloting was complemented by Aldrin’s equally remarkable discipline and calmness as he stoically provided a running commentary on altitude and descent rate while handling systems problems that threatened the landing. Finally, after a harrowing twelve and a half minutes, Armstrong gently landed Eagle at “Tranquility Base”, a name he had personally chosen to denote the location of the first Moon landing.In “Landing Eagle-Inside the Cockpit During the First Moon Landing”, author Mike Engle gives a minute by minute account of the events that occurred throughout Eagle’s descent and landing on the Moon. Engle, a retired NASA engineer and Mission Control flight controller, uses NASA audio files of actual voice recordings made inside Eagle’s cockpit during landing to give the reader an “inside the cockpit” perspective on the first Moon landing. Engle’s transcripts of these recordings, along with background material on the history and technical details behind the enormous effort to accomplish the first Moon landing, give a new and fascinating insight into the events that occurred on that remarkable day fifty years ago.

Genres: Space, History

97 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2019

Reviews

[Rick C · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fewer than 20 tumultuous minutes

I've read many books on the Apollo missions, but this is one of the few that taught me new important details inn a long time. Covering only the Apollo 11 Lunar Module from the time it unlocked from the Command Module until the moment it touched down gently on the Moon, it highlights the incredible flying skill of Neil Armstrong aided by Buzz Aldrin and NASA Mission Control through several issues, each of which came close to requiring aborting the mission -- communication failures, a computer that caused them to head past their designated landing site toward an area of boulders the size of cars, as well as rebooting itself five times during the approach. Armstrong did far more manually than had ever been practiced or contemplated, and brought the LM down in the Nick of time, before fuel ran out. A quick but detailed read, light on jargon but still detailed in its explanations.

[Ron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good read for first time readers about the landing

Good balanced mostly accurate (some of the tech descriptions were slightly off) but an excellent description with just the right level of detail of the landing. The one thing I liked most about it was it’s one of the few descriptions of the landing that highlighted the fact that all this “first man” stuff is hyperbola. Even Armstrong made it clear that the true event was the landing and both men were at equal risk and both men touched down on the moon at exactly the same time. The notion that Armstrong was somehow the first man on the moon is pure PR and nothing more. Buzz and Neal are the FIRST MEN on the moon. There is no “First man”.

[Diane Moriarty · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a short book that explains in great detail the descent of the first spacecraft that descended and landed on the moon for the fIrst time. I learned a great deal about Neil Armstrong who was a well-known pilot and also a very accomplished engineer who helped immensely in bringing the Moonlanding to fruition. It is amazing to realize that we have more technology in our smart phones then was used to land a man on the moon.

[Zachary Wagoner · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short but interesting read. The book goes through the landing of Armstrong and Aldrin on the Moon during Apollo 11. The book goes through minute by minute. The reader is offered sections of what is going on in the lander as well as explanations of relevant equipment or situations.

My only complaint would be there were a couple sections that were close enough to being word for word repeats of previous sections. This isn't necessarily bad, though fairly obvious in such a short book.

[Neil Hunt]

This book had very similar content to the excellent BBC podcast "13 Minutes to the Moon", and is a good view of the technology and spirit of the era.

Actually, I think that the book gives a better sense of the amazing, insane, feat of Neil Armstrong overriding the (incredibly primitive) computer and flying the Lunar Module "by the seat of the pants" to its final landing on the moon!

[Thomas Nicolosi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Revealed many new details of a familiar story.

This book contains many details of the LM design, astronaut training, and the lunar landing operation. If you are already familiar with this story this can provide some new information and insight. It was a quick and enjoyable reading experience.

[Kevin Rumsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Eagle has landed

An excellent book that puts the reader directly behind or in between Armstrong and Aldrin. I felt as though I was in the Eagle.For anyone, like me who witnessed Armstrong walk in the moon,this is a must read.

[Du · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great detail and summary

This snapshot of the landing of the Eagle inn the moon is very detailed and almost movie like. No drama, just clear and clean action and reaction. Very well documented.

[Bruce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short and Sweeet

Great little recounting of Armstrong and Aldrin’s descent from lunar orbit to the moon’s Sea of Tranquility. Lots of inside baseball in this one, crisply and intelligently conveyed. Easily readable in an hour, and well worth the effort.

[GIRTS WARREN ALKSNIS · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE EAGLE HAS LANDED


A very exciting minute by minute coverage with altitude and descent rates of the Apollo 11 landing.
Well written.
I feel I was there in the cockpit
experiencing every moment.

[Alan Mayes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great insight

Explained a few things more clearly than other histories have done in regards to the programme alarms and fuel situation close to landing. A very useful addition to the story of how many first landed on the moon.

[David Houff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great short book

This is a quick read that details the first moon landing event by event. It helps decipher some of the communications hard on the very familiar moon landing footage we’ve seen.

[David Christianson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fills in some blanks

A nice effort at breaking down the Apollo 11 landing timeline with good detail and for me - some new insights. It’s short enough to be worth the effort of a quick read for even the most well read space fanatic.

[Gregory · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book was poorly edited (grammatical errors, repetitions) but I found the content to be a nice summary of the landing.

[Steve Bucci · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating

I really enjoyed this play by play of what was going on in the descent to the Moon inside Eagle. Really interesting and intense.

[Matthew Weathers · Rating 5 out of 5]

A nice, concise description

It's just about the 12 minute of landing during Apollo 11. Well written and enjoyable. It explains all the words used in every recorded statement.

[scott hamilton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great companion to the BBC podcast "Thirteen Minutes to the Moon".

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was actually pretty interesting. I learned some things that I hadn't read about previously. It's a quick and easy read. But very interesting if you want a bit more in depth on the landing.

[Philip Hollenback · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short but concise and clear retelling of the computer problems that happened during the first moon landing.

[Gary Knight · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it

I’m something of a manned space flight nerd. I know a lot about the Apollo flights, but I learned new things from this book. It is well written and researched.