“The Eagle has landed.” 2019 will mark the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11, and just ahead of that milestone NASA has released 19,000 hours of flight controller audio recordings from the 1969 mission. From tense periods of silence to moments of levity, we now have a treasure trove of behind-the-scenes audio digitized from 170 tapes.
The content is organized and easy to navigate. It’s laid out chronologically, and each section of of the narrative is contextualized with a scripted introduction. The audio has also been transcribed so you can follow along.
“That’s one small step for man . . . one . . . giant leap for mankind”
You can listen to Neil Armstrong’s famous quote here.
The project was undertaken in collaboration with the University of Texas at Dallas. The entire process took four months.
According to NBC News, Greg Wiseman, a NASA engineer who worked on the project, explained that the goal was to pay tribute to all the people responsible for one of humanity’s biggest achievements. “Once the audio gets out there, maybe people will say, ‘Hey, that was my dad, or that was my granddad.’”
To explore the entire archive, click here.