The secret to Neil Armstrong and Apollo 11 almost died when he returned to Earth

There have been a number of 'heart taps' that occurred during the human journey to the Moon 50 years ago.

July 20 will mark 50 years the first time humans set foot on the Moon. On this occasion, science journalist Nancy Atkinson launched Eight Years to the Moon: History of the Apollo Missions , which revealed an anomaly that could have made astronauts in the Apollo 11 spacecraft. encountered an accident on the way back to Earth.

So far, the mission of the Apollo 11 spacecraft has always been an extraordinary success for the United States. On July 20, 1969, at 10:56 pm EDT, the American astronaut Neil Amstrong of Apollo 11 transmitted sound from the Moon - about 385,000 kilometers from Earth - to more than a billion people on the ground.

After the journey of Apollo 11, the US Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) first brought humans to the Moon and all crew returned to Earth safely.

Image of Buzz Aldrin tourist photographed by Neil Armstrong on the Moon.(Image source: Neon).

However, there were a number of 'heart-throbs' taking place during the journey and many incidents caused the entire crew to be in danger.

Historians and space enthusiasts have long heard some of Apollo 11's dangerous situations, such as overloading the ship's computer system, causing the alarm to sound just before landing. The moon, the appearance of a volcano can threaten the landing process, the energy is frozen, a switch needed to leave the Moon is broken .

But according to a book released on July 2, three Apollo 11 astronauts faced a much more dangerous situation than everything was told.

According to Nancy Atkinson, a science journalist and Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Mission , a serious and unusual problem took place when the crew prepared to land. to the ground.

"Through interviews and research to write this book, I discovered a serious abnormal problem that occurred during the Apollo 11 Earth's journey" , according to the email of author Atkinson with Business Insider. Mrs. Atkinson said "this risk is only discovered after the crew returns to Earth safely".

"We were lucky"

The problem happened just before Apollo 11 crew landed on Earth. According to Atkinson, most NASA employees don't realize the danger astronauts encounter. And until several weeks after Apollo 11's mission was over, this abnormality was noticed.

During the eight-day journey, the crew of the Apollo 11 spacecraft will work in a command module cabin (command module). This module will be attached to the head of the service module - a place to store supplies, fuel and a large rocket engine. NASA called this entire structure a command-and-service (CSM) module.

Apollo 11. Command module (Photo: NASA).

When leaving the Earth, CSM carries another part, called the lunar module . When the mission was completed, the moon module was put on Moon's orbit and CSM used a rocket engine to bring astronauts back to Earth on a three-day trip.

About 15 minutes before the astronauts landed on the Pacific Ocean, CSM will split into two modules. This is necessary because only the command module (where the crew works) has a heat shield. This heat shield can protect astronauts by deflecting and absorbing a large amount of heat during the command module through the Earth's atmosphere at dozens of times faster than a tablet. bullet speed.

After separation, the service module now has no more role and is left in the Earth's atmosphere. However, things did not go as planned. As explained by Mrs. Atkinson the service module has 'chased' astronauts as they fly back to Earth.

"Houston, we found the module to be on the move. A little higher than us and leaned to the right," astronaut Aldrin, the observer outside the window of the command module - said. with the team coordinating the task on the ground via radio.

A moment later he added: "Now it moves from right to left".

Later, their radio communications system was temporarily turned off and the astronauts were unable to provide any further details. But one aircraft pilot saw both of these modules return to Earth and the service module broke into pieces.

Apollo 11. Ship structure (Photo: NASA).

According to Gary Johnson, who used to work as an electrical engineer in the Apollo program, during the landing process, the service module should have "not moved closely to the command module".

If a collision occurs, the command module may have been paralyzed, out of control or even destroyed. If the separation process caused the service module to crash into the astronauts' cabin, a disaster might have also taken place, writes Atkinson.

"If everything goes bad, we might have lost the Apollo 11 crew" and "we were lucky" , sources Johnson told author Atkinson.

Why is the public not aware of this risk?

The astronauts, participants who coordinated the task and communications staff in this project did not understand what had happened until NASA interviewed three astronauts about their mission a few weeks later. .

Based on information provided by astronauts, NASA opened an investigation and discovered that the previous two missions - Apollo 8 and Apollo 10 - also face the same risk.

Author Nancy Atkinson.

The cause of the problem lies in the command module separation controller and service module. NASA was aware of the same problem in the Apollo 12 spacecraft, launched in November 1969, but decided not to fix it due to time constraints.

For a while, NASA stored the Apollo 11 fragments secretly. An official report on this issue came out in November 1970 - about 6 months after the Apollo 13 ship crashed. However, this text, somehow, has not been shown on newspapers.

"This issue has never been included in the Apollo 11 mission report and has somehow been forgotten," said Atkinson .