Stories about men last month

They were pioneers of space intelligence -24 NASA astronauts who traveled to the Moon in Apollo’s missions of the 1960s and 1970s.

Loss Apollo 13 commander Jim Lawelwho ruled A reliable mission safe to return to the land in 1970It means that there are only five people who escaped the relative safety of the Earth’s orbit and went deeper into space.

Now, for over 50 years, the race to return people to the lunar surface is heated again.

NASA hopes that its ARTEMIS program will lead to astronauts living on the moon this decade. China also seeks to have people on the lunar surface by 2030 who have Landed the probe On the far side of the month in June 2024.

A number of private companies tried to send scientific skills to the moon though failures exceeded the number success.

NASA intended to launch Artemis 2, the first crew of the moon expedition after Apollo 17 in 1972, last year but This date slipped in 2026As a space agency says he needs more time to prepare.

Meanwhile, companies such as SpaceX and Boeing continue to develop their own technology, though not without their failures.

Problems with Starliner Boeing The left two astronauts who were at the International Space Station were uncomfortable for the aerospace giant, but “Fast Unplanned Pachtroke” Star Ships SpaceX They became an ordinary spectacle for space observers.

These delays emphasize the sad fact that the number of other Apollo astronauts decreases.

Along with Frank Borman and Bill Anders, Jim Lowel went down in history when three launched the first lunar mission on Apollo 8, having experienced team/service module and his life support systems, preparing for the later Apollo 11 landing.

Their ship actually made 10 orbits of the moon before returning home. Later, Lowel had to become the fifth person who walked on the lunar surface as Apollo’s commander 13 – but of course it never was.

Instead, Apollo 13 was played in the film, in which he was played by his brush with his death, in which he was played by Tom Hanks.

After retirement from NASA in 1973, Lavelle worked in the telecommunications industry. Marilyn, his wife for over 60 years, who has become the focus of the media during the infamous incident, died in August 2023.

But what about the other five months?

Who are they and what are their stories?

On July 21, 1969, former Edwin fighter pilot “Bazin” left his lunar landing ship and became the second person who appeared on the surface of the moon. Almost 20 minutes in advance, his commander Neil Armstrong was the first.

The first words of Oldrin were: “Beautiful appearance”.

“Isn’t that?” Armstrong asked. “There is a wonderful sight here.”

“Wonderful devastation,” said Oldrin.

That he was the second, he never sat with him comfortably. His crew from the crew Michael Collins said that Oldrin “was indignant that he was the first more than he appreciated that he was the second.”

But Oldrin was still proud of his achievement; Many years later, when he collided with a man who claimed that Apollo 11 was a complex lie, 72-year-old Oldrin hit him down his jaw.

And after the death of Nile Armstrong in 2012, Oldrin said: “I know that many millions of others from all over the world joined me, mourning the passage of a true American hero and the best pilot I knew.”

Despite the struggle in later life, he never lost the thirst for adventures and joined the expeditions both in the north and in the south, the last at the age of 86.

Having accepted his celebrity, he remained a supporter of the space program, especially Need to explore Mars.

“I don’t think we just have to go there and go back – we did it with Apollo,” he says.

And his name became known to the new generation as an inspiration for Buzz Lightyear from the Toy Story movie series. In January 2023, at the age of 93, he married for the fourth time.

There are only four people who remained on the moon – Charlie Duke is one of them. He did it at the age of 36, which made him the youngest man who stepped on the lunar surface.

In a later BBC interview, he told about the “entertaining area”.

“His beauty … a sharp contrast between the black space and the moon horizon … I will never forget it. It was so dramatically.”

But he has already played another significant role in the study of NASA moon. After Apollo 11 touched in 1969, it was a Duke – in managing the mission as a communicator capsule, or with a hood – who was nervously waiting at the other end of the line when Neil Armstrong said, “Houstan, the database here. The eagle landed.”

In his distinctive southern picture, the Duke replied, “Roger, calm.

“I really meant it, I kept breathing at the last minute,” Later he said BBC.

In 2022, Duke told the BBC that he was delighted with the Artemida NAS mission – but warned that the new generation of astronauts would be difficult.

“They took away near the South Pole for landing, because when the ice is on the moon, it will be down in this region. So, it will be difficult – because it’s really rough there. But we’ll shoot it.”

Charlie Duke now lives outside the San -Antonio, Texas, from Dorothy, to which he is married for 60 years.

Fred Haise was part of Apollo’s 13 crew that narrowly avoid disaster In 1970, after the blast, the explosion was forced to stop the mission when the craft was more than 200,000 miles (321,000 km) from the ground.

The whole world nervously watched NASA tried to safely return the damaged spacecraft and its crew. Opening, Haise and his fellow crews James Lawel and Jack Svigert became celebrities, their obvious surprise.

“I feel like maybe I missed something while it was there,” he said to the leading current, Johnny Carson, when the crew appeared in Tonight Show.

Haze never reached the moon. Although it is planned to become the commander of Apollo 19, this mission was abolished from the budget reduction, as did all other flights after Apollo 17.

He later acted as a test pilot on the prototype of the Enterprise space shuttle.

Like many of his colleagues, Apollo, after leaving NASA, Haise continued to work in the aerospace industry before retirement.

Unlike most other astronauts at the time, Schmidt did not serve as a pilot.

The geologist and academic, he initially instructed NASA astronauts about what to pay attention to during his geological excursions in the lunar field before becoming the scientist himself in 1965.

In December 1972, Schmidt was part of the latest crew for a month, Apollo 17, and together with commander Eugene Chernon, one of the last two men who stepped on the surface of the moon.

After leaving NASA in 1975, he was elected to the US Senate from his native New Mexico, but served only one term. Since then, he has worked as a consultant in various industries and continued in scientific circles.

It is also known for opposing scientific consensus regarding climate change.

David Scott, Apollo 15 commander – one of the four people who walked on the moon – but he was also one of the first who was traveling on it.

In 1971, Scott and Comrade from James Irwin’s crew tested the Mechanism of Lunar Movement (LRV), “the first circles of man on the moon” as he was called. Traveling with a speed of up to 8 mph (12 km/h) LRV allowed the astronauts to travel long distances from the moon much faster than they could walk.

“In the first mission you never know if it will work,” he recalled. “The biggest sharp sensation is to pull it out, turn it on, and it actually worked.”

Returning from the moon, Scott worked in different leading roles within NASA before coming to the private sector.

He also acted as a consultant for several film and television projects, including Apollo 13 and HBO mini -series from Earth to month.

What will the next generation of lunar adventure achieve?