Page 53 - The Appollo Story

~----------1 The Apollo Story1---- --------

Apollo 11 (AS-506) - The Eagle Has Landed
William Satire prepared a speech called 'In Event of Moon Disaster' for President Nixon to read on tele-
vision if the Apollo 11 astronauts were stranded on the Moon. According to the plans, Mission Control
would "close down communications" with the LEM, and a clergyman would have commended their souls
to "the deepest of the deep" in a public ritual likened to burial at sea. Presidential telephone calls to the
astronauts' wives were also planned. The speech originated in a memo from Safi.re to Nixon's White
House Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman in which Safi.re suggested a protocol the administration might fol-
low in reaction to such a disaster. The last line of the prepared text contained an allusion to Rupert
Brooke's First World War poem, 'The Soldier,' - If I should die, think only this of me ....

INAUGURATION DAY

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The above Inauguration cover has been hand signed by President Nixon

The prepared speech:
'Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in
peace.
These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery. But
they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice.
These two men are laying down their lives in mankind's most noble goal: the search for truth and under-
standing.
They will be mourned by their families and friends; they will be mourned by their nation; they will be
mourned by the people of the world; they will be mourned by a Mother Earth that dared send two of her
sons into the unknown.
In their exploration, they stirred the people of the world to feel as one; in their sacrifice, they bind more
tightly the brotherhood of man.
In ancient days, men looked at stars and saw their heroes in the constellations. In modern times, we do
much the same, but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood.
Others will follow, and surely find their way home. Man's search will not be denied. But these men were
the first, and they will remain the foremost in our hearts.
For every human being who looks up at the moon in the nights to come will know that there is some cor-
ner of another world that is forever mankind. '