Annotating Apollo: The Command Module Transcripts

Jonathan Scott lets Boundless behind the curtain of his upcoming book, which is being published with Unbound

Sometime around 1982 my year 3 teacher Mrs Hill played the class an audio recording from the moon landings. I can't recall in detail if it had a tremendous impact at the time but it must have done, on some level, because not long after that space became my primary interest. By the age of 10, I had a dogeared star chart tacked to my wall, books by Patrick Moore and Carl Sagan on my shelf, and a purple journal filled with fanciful astronomical theories based on zero evidence. Halley's Comet, the Voyager 2 flypasts of Uranus and Neptune, and the Challenger disaster were all focal points of my childhood.

The more you dig into the history of the Apollo missions, the more you realise just how much was documented. During Apollo 11’s journey, in 1969, which of course was man first landed on the moon, the coverage was extensive. There are famous film segments recorded for television, there’s commentary from NASA, and there’s material too from Mission Control (the center back in Houston, Texas where trips into space are controlled from). Much of this was broadcast live or has been endlessly repeated ever since.

The onboard recordings, however, are a little different and are, I think, a little more interesting. These were captured by a reel-to-reel tape recorder in the Command Module, later transcribed by NASA and were kept confidential until the late 1970s. They reveal what Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins said to each other when no one else was listening. They provide an intimate, real-time glimpse into the mission. On one level they help you grasp the magnitude of what they achieved and the technical challenges they were facing. But it's the unguarded moments that take you right inside the Command Module like nothing else can.

There's a wonderful sequence when they're orbiting the moon, and all three men are simply marvelling at the size of the craters. Buzz points at one and says: "There's a big mother over there too." Collins responds: "Buzz, don't refer to them as big mothers."

It's such a simple, human moment. It sounds like the kind of chat you might hear in any workplace, but it's from a fragile metal box orbiting the moon — a quarter of a million miles from home — at 3,600 mph. Humans, wherever they are, remain human. These were three ordinary men on an extraordinary journey.

At times like these, the conversation speaks for itself. Currently, I am writing a book which provides annotations for the Apollo 11 Command Module Transcripts. As an object, the book promises to be beautiful but my inspiration really is to tell the story when things are not obvious. For example:

Collins: "Okay, proceed to Menkent. There she goes, Menkent."

In the first phase of the mission, during Earth orbit, they're checking systems, taking photographs, and correcting alignment ahead of the Translunar Injection burn. The onboard computer had the positions of 37 stars in its memory, so by taking accurate sightings of two stars on the list, they could determine their alignment. In this case Collins uses Menkent (Theta Centauri) and Nunki (Sigma Sagittarii). Then:

000:46:06 Aldrin: It's a little on the chilly side in the cabin. Would you like...
000:46:08 Armstrong: Feels comfortable to me.
000:46:09 Aldrin: ...would you like it a little warmer, anybody?
000:46:10 Armstrong: I don't think so. I think it's a little on the...
000:46:13 Aldrin: The manual one.
000:46:16 Armstrong: It sure doesn't look, sure doesn't feel like - Actually, it may be a little - it may be a little warm.
000:46:20 Aldrin: Well, my - my feet are a little chilly. See, it's 47. Okay, 37 is...
000:46:26 Collins: No, that's...
000:46:27 Aldrin: ...is Nunki.

This is an example of the way they flip from easy-to-grasp chatter to arcane jargon. Aldrin says, "my feet are a little chilly", then follows this with numbers, which you might assume refer to temperature. In fact, 37 is the number of the star that Collins has just marked – Nunki.

Because of the popular interest in Apollo, there's lots of great material out there, but there's also quite a lot of myth. For example, did Buzz play 'Fly Me to the Moon' on the surface of the moon? A casual search would suggest that he did. It's true that each astronaut went with Sony TC-50s, Walkman-like personal tape recorders on which they could record mission logs. A record producer named Mickey Kapp had provided the men with mixtapes, and the idea was they could listen to the music during downtime, and record over it as they went along. Whether Buzz played that song from the surface, seems to be open to debate. It's constantly repeated that he did, whereas he himself has said that he didn't.

Nevertheless, the transcripts do reveal some of the music they took with them. On day 2 the crew are heard listening to 'Angel of the Morning' by Merrilee Rush & the Turnabouts. On day 4, during pre-landing orbits of the moon, Buzz says: ‘Let’s get some music’, during which you can hear a snatch of ‘Mother Country’ by John Stewart.

Normally, when working on a book, you’re constantly worrying about narrative and structure. But this has been different: here the narrative is set in stone, so all there is to think about is the fun stuff: working out and explaining what they’re talking about. It’s like being in a band that’s already playing a solid groove, leaving you free to solo over the top.

During my research I've been re-reading Andrew Smith's Moondust and David Whitehouse's Apollo 11 for inspiration, diving into NASA's archives, going through documents, photographs and mission reports, as well as the Oral History Project, which has interview transcripts from Armstrong, Collins, Flight Director Gene Kranz, and the CAPCOM team members Charles Duke and Owen Garriott. I'm also listening to the CAPCOM recordings, as these sometimes shed light on things that come up in the Command Module recordings.

A few years ago, I had the opportunity to write a book about Carl Sagan and the making of the Voyager Golden Record, which felt like a childhood dream come true. This feels very similar. I like to think Mrs Hill would be pleased.

Apollo 11: The Command Module Transcripts is now available for pre-order