The Moon Landing 42 Years On: Five Odd Facts (Includes Urine, Wine and a Petty Refusal to Take Photos)

By Richard Connelly Tue., Jul. 19 2011 at 6:01 AM

Categories: NASA

The flag: Better than a solar-wind experiment that just looks like a flag.

Wednesday marks the 42nd anniversary of man landing on the moon. One small step, and all that.

It's an odd anniversary, the 42nd, so here are five odd facts about the mission.

5. Buzz Aldrin, First Man to Piss on the Moon
One giant leak for mankind -- Neil Armstrong may have been the first man to set foot on the moon, but Buzz Aldrin was the first one to take a leak on it. As millions watched across the globe unknowingly, Buzz let loose the floodgates and enjoyed a good old session of draining the lizard. The Moon Lizard.

Serve cold....on the moon

4. NASA Thought Hard about Not Putting up a Flag
In what we don't doubt was definitely not a silly exercise, diplomats from around the world agreed that the moon could not be the property of any country who, say, got there first and claimed it like Columbus.

Still, the urge to plant an "America, fuck yeah!!" flag was enormous. NASA, you'll be glad to know, had a Committee on Symbolic Activities for the First Lunar Landing, popularly known (we guess) as CSAFLL. They debated options that might not offend other countries but would still be flag-like, including "an adaptation of the solar wind experiment in the form of a flag," according to NASA's report.

Eventually, of course, the Stars and Stripes were so proudly hailed, once the astronauts fought their way through the rocky surface, very, very nervous that they wouldn't get a good plant and the flag would topple over in front of the world.

3. First Drink on the Moon: Vino, Baby
Get that Tang shit out of here. You're one of the first men in history to land on the moon, you want something that will give you a buzz, man. Let you enjoy the moment, you know?

So the first drink ever imbibed on the moon was....wine. We know not if it was Annie Greensprings, Ripple or Boone's Farm, it being the late '60s and all, but it was wine.

Aldrin had smuggled along some wine and a wafer so he could have communion on the moon, was the official story, but really he was already trying to drink away the whole "second man on the moon" thing.

Tags:

Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong

We Recommend

Jim Bell

FYI Mr Connelly: It's not the "official" story. It happened and it's true. A little respect would be nice.

Aldrin had brought with him a tiny communion kit, given him by his church, that had asilver chalice and wine vial about the size of the tip of his finger. During the morninghe radioed, "Houston, this is Eagle. This is the LM pilot speaking. I would like torequest a few moments of silence. I would like to invite each person listening in, whoeveror wherever he may be, to contemplate for a moment the events of the last few hours, andto give thanks in his own individual way."

"In the radio blackout," he wrote later, "I opened the little plastic packages which contained the bread and the wine. I poured the wine into the chalice our church had given me. In the one-sixth gravity of the moon, the wine slowly curled and gracefully came up the side of the cup.

Then I read the Scripture, 'I am the vine, you are the branches. Whosoever abides in me will bring forth much fruit.' I had intended to read my communion passage back to earth, but at the last minute Deke Slayton had requested that I not do this. NASA was already embroiled in a legal battle with Madelyn Murray O'Hare, the celebrated opponent of religion, over the Apollo 8 crew reading from Genesis while orbiting the moon at Christmas. I agreed reluctantly..."

"Eagle's metal body creaked. I ate the tiny Host and swallowed the wine. I gave thanks for the intelligence and spirit that had brought two young pilots to the Sea of Tranquility. It wasinteresting for me to think: the very first liquid ever poured on the moon, and the very first food eaten there, were the communion elements."

Is heaping ridicule on sincere religious beliefs and practices part of the Houston Press Mission Statement?

Eddie Velasquez

Why no mention to the Autobot spaceship, ah? Conspiracy! :-)

M_Loscalzo91

I'm surprised his penis didn't get sucked out his suit! No wait, I have a better one! "Help, help, my penis stopped breathing! It's gonna need CPR..."

Evan

I used to think the Star Spangled Banner was about the moon landing. Still wish it was.

Mike

At least three people knew that Armstrong would use the term "Tranquility Base" to specifically signal a succesful landing. One of them was the Capsule Communicator [CapCom] Charlie Duke, who would later walk on Apollo 16. The Flight Director was probably in on it too. It was a surprise to most, but not to all.

Elias Shams

Can you imagine if we had all these social media channels 42 years ago, Buzz and the gazillions who watched him, would have been pretty busy on all these channels:

Twitter: I need to pee pee! Facebook: I pee peed!Foursquare: I’m pee peeing here!Quora: Why am I pee peeing?Youtube:Watch this pee pee!LinkedIn: I pee pee wellNew myspace: let’s dance while pee peeing! Google+: Let's all pee pee in a circlehttp://awesomize.me: HOW AWESOME DO I PEE PEE on Twitter, FB, Foursquare, Quora, youtube, LinkedIn, myspace and Google+