Most people are familiar with the catchphrase of astronaut Neil Armstrong about a small step for a man, but a huge leap for humanity, which he said when he became the first of people to set foot on the moon. Fifty years after the Apollo 11’s historic moon landing, its successful mission continues to capture the public’s imagination. And although all members of the three-man team became heroes, Armstrong literally took off to the top of fame. But have you ever wondered why Armstrong was the first to receive the honor to step on the moon?
Lunar module command and standard protocol
Armstrong, who was the mission commander, joined Apollo 11 along with astronauts Edwin Buzz Aldrin Jr. and Michael Collins.
While Collins, as a pilot, remained in the module, Buzz Aldrin joined Armstrong on the Moon after 19 minutes. Being in a team, it would be reasonable for Aldrin to go to the moon first, because the pilot and the head of the mission should remain in the module. In fact, this was dictated by the standard protocol: since the commander had many duties on board, as a rule, the younger crew member made spacewalks upon request. In 2014, Aldrin talked about why the departure from the standard protocol was made.
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“There was a group at NASA that believed that the youngest member of the crew should be the first, but many people who saw the commander of past expeditions on the surface of the moon saw a peculiar symbolic meaning, ” explained Aldrin. “The decision was absolutely correct regarding who came first, and of course, purely symbolic.”
Aldrin further noted that neither he nor Armstrong were involved in the decision-making process, stating that it "depended on people much higher - in NASA." This was confirmed by NASA's legendary engineer Christopher Columbus Kraft, Jr., who was NASA's first director. In Craig Nelson's book, The Epic Story of the First Men on the Moon, Kraft tells his version of how the decision was made.
Kraft Opinion
“The first person on the moon will be a legend, an American hero, different from any soldier, politician or inventor, ” says Kraft. - It must be Neil Armstrong. I shared my ideas with Dick [Slayton, NASA Flight Director], and then with George Lowe [Apollo space program manager]. They thought so too. ”
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NASA Official Report
Interestingly, NASA's historical narrative of this event is somewhat different. Their official website says that the decision was not so much about who would become a national hero, but about the practical guidance of the lunar module. The hatch was located on the opposite side from where Aldrin was to sit. This meant that in order for him to go out first, he would have to climb over his teammate when both were in bulky spacesuits. Thus, for Armstrong, who was sitting next to the hatch, it was more logical to get out first.
A report by Dick Slayton, which is also published in Nelson's book, confirms that the true decision was a combination of these two factors.
