Trip to the moon and back, July 1969

It was 50 years ago  (July 16) that a huge rocket carrying three exceptionally brave American astronauts blasted off from the Kennedy Space Centre on one of the most daring human endeavours in history.

Four days later, two of them would step out onto the moon’s surface, and all three would later return across space to land safely back on Earth. Canadians played a pivotal role in this astounding effort.

Maurice Bitran (PhD), is an astrophysicist and CEO at the Ontario Science Centre. He describes the moment, the technology at the time and the Canadian role.

Maurice Bitran (PhD) astrophysicist and CEO of the Ontario Science Museum on the 50th anniversary of landing on the moonEN_Interview_1-20190715-WIE10

It may seem incredible but today’s mobile phones have more capability than the computers at the time that were involved in this amazing feat. Bitran who was a teenager at the time and remembers the landing vividly, says around the world almost everybody knew of the lunar mission attempt.

The two stage lunar module. The idea was conceived by a Canadian engineer working for NASA. The legs of the lander were designed and built in Canada so that Canadian "feet" were first on the moon. That section of the lunar module remained on the moon when the "eagle" capsule blasted off to rejoin the orbiting command capsule. "Eagle" would then be jettisoned to crash later somewhere on the surface. (NASA)

Indeed, it is estimated that fully one fifth of the entire world population watched the event a few days later in a live broadcast from the moon as Neil Armstrong became the first human to set foot on the moon. In doing so and in the excitement of the moment he also apparently flubbed the prepared statement which was to be ‘one small step for A man. A giant leap for mankind”.  Even though he left out the “a”, everyone knew what he meant and it has become one of the best known statements in history.

In making this achievement possible, several Canadian engineers and technicians who have been working on Canada’s extremely advanced Avro Arrow jet interceptor, moved to NASA when the Arrow programme was brutally cancelled. Their knowledge and ingenuity in aerospace designs and materials, gained during the development of the Arrow, were instrumental in the success.

Image from a period report in French from Radio-Canada speaking with the President of Heroux inside the workshop about he design of the Canadian designed lunar landing legs. A tiny model lander is in the background by some metal shavings almost on it, with a full scale leg in the background and holding a smaller piece milled from a solid aluminium billet to a wall thickness of a mere .040-in. for linear strength but extreme weight reduction. (Radio-Canada)

Indeed, it was a Canadian James Chamberlin who proposed the two-vessel concept of an lunar orbiting command module, and a second module that would land and later blast off from the surface to carry two astronauts back up to the command module. Canadian Owen Maynard became chief of systems engineering for the Apollo programme, and it was he who laid out the design for the lunar lander and its two sections. Yet another Canadian helped design the heat shield for the returning command capsule. Although shields had been developed in the Mercury programme, Apollo 11 would re-entering the Earth atmosphere at far greater speed and steeper angle required far greater protection. The flight surgeon was also a Canadian.

The first day cover of the June 27, release of the Canada Post commemorative stamps honouring both Owen Maynard and James Chamberlin, as well as other Canadian contributions to NASA's Apollo space program. Interestingly the issue is a "two-stage" stamp, one stamp showing command module and the other stamp of the lunar module (Canada Post)<...