We all know that Apollo 11 was the first manned mission to land on the moon. What we saw there changed what we thought about our place in this world. But did you know that during their return trip to Earth, they took a photo of what would have been their landing site had it not been for the course correction?
For more information on this topic, please see the following post:
Apollo 11 – What We Saw. — The end.
Course Correction: In order to be sure they would land at the right place, Apollo 11 took a picture of their landing site before returning home from what was supposed to have been a brief manoeuvring exercise that had gone off without incident.
Unfortunately, when the astronauts tried again, one engine failed and caused navigation issues for several seconds until it was fixed. This event became known as “the course correction.”
The astronaut Michael Collins later described this event in his autobiography Carrying the Fire (1974):
“In an eerily slow motion. I watched my own moonwalk recede into the blackness..” During this time, Mission Control could hear alarms sounding on board and quickly instructed Armstrong and Aldrin how to use emergency procedures if necessary.
