Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Apollo 11's Close Call

Thirty-five years ago, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made history by guiding their spacecraft down to the lunar surface. But few outside the control room in Houston knew that the first manned moon landing came perilously close to disaster.

With about 1,000 feet to go, Neil Armstrong realized that the lunar module's guidance computer was steering the ship toward a field of boulders. Armstrong took manual control of Eagle. But back on Earth, controllers began to worry -- Eagle was about to run out of fuel.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.