edgar-mitchell

66
The Way of the Explorer
As we slowed our descent and pitched forward to a “feet down” position
in the manner of a helicopter, the moon’s rocky horizon rose up, its
broken gray surface appearing in the fine texture that is perceptible only
at close range. And there loomed Cone Crater, just as in simulator training.
After locating what appeared to be a smooth landing zone, and easing
Antares toward it, we could soon see the mysterious lunar dust being swept
away, as the craft’s descent engine was now close enough to stir it up. The
landscape was altered. We were lowering into a silent, dead world, a place
where nothing moved. All lay still, except for our craft, just as it had,
seemingly, since the beginning of time. Eventually Antares’s landing sensors
touched the soft lunar soil, and the engines were promptly stopped. We
dropped the remaining inches to the surface. We had arrived. Alan
Shepard’s and Edgar Mitchell’s craft was resting on the face of the moon.
Two extraterrestrials in a very foreign land.