Okay. At our recent movie night a guest called me on the carpet and gave me ‘what for’ regarding the tagline I have used on this web site and on our chapter promotional material: “Houston: First Word From the Moon!” His objection is that “Houston” was NOT the first word from the Moon. Okay. Here’s the sequence, from the official transcripts:
- The tip of Eagle‘s landing gear probe touches the lunar surface look these up. Aldrin, monitoring, calls out, “Contact light!”
- Armstrong calls out, “Shutdown.” Aldrin replies, “Okay hno8hrc. Engine stop.”
- Aldrin calls out, “ACA out of Detent.” Armstrong replies, “Out of Detent. Auto.”
- Aldrin says, “Mode Control, both Auto. Descent Engine Command Override, Off. Engine Arm, Off. 413 is in.”
- Charlie Duke breaks in with a transmission from Earth, “We copy you down, Eagle.”
- However, Armstrong and Aldrin still have some housekeeping to perform. Armstrong says, “Engine arm is off.” He pauses.
- Then, Armstrong makes the first communication of intelligence specifically directed from humans on another celestial body to humans on Earth: “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.”
The tagline stands as is.