July• 2019 | 29the broken handle. Over the
years, that cracked leather
bag had carried volumes of
suggestions, ideas, propos-
als and articles; graph draw-
ings of rocket engines, lunar
vehicles, space stations. It
had also been the receptacle
for government turn-downs
and setbacks, for scathing
editorial criticisms of “von
Braun’s bizarre plans to
reach the moon”.
But all that was behind the
57-year-old director of the Marshall
Space Flight Center. For 43 years –
since he fired his first rocket at 14
- he had been dreaming of this day.
Now, bag in hand, he gently kissed
his sleeping wife. Maria opened her
eyes. “Good luck,” she said.
“Pray,” was all he could say. “Pray.”
WITH A FRIEND, VON BRAUNmade
his way outside to where a helicopter
stood waiting in the darkness like a
great grasshopper. He strapped him-
self in, the rotors began turning, and
in a great sweeping half-circle the
helicopter climbed into the sky.
Von Braun took over the controls
from the pilot. From a few metres up,
the ground view was staggering. In
one way or another the whole world
seemed to be converging on Cape
Kennedy. Cocoa Beach lay shimmer-
ing in a blaze of light. Red and blue
neon strips glared before regiments
of motels, restaurants and caravan
parks. Flood-lit signs in front of them
carried all sorts of messages: “Good
luck Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins –
Go! Go! Go!” read one.
As far as the eye could see, thou-
sands of fires twinkled on the beach-
es and in the camping areas on either
side of Cocoa Beach. Lights sparkled
from boats and launches. The Flor-
ida Marine Patrol estimated there
were 3000 boats in the area. In addi-
tion, some 300 private aircraft were
circling 16 to 25 kilometres west of
the launching site at the moment of
blast-off. And below, every road was
jammed with cars inching along,
bumper-to-bumper, their lights blaz-
ing. Some 250,000 cars had either ar-
rived or were en route.
In all, in these final minutes of
darkness of humankind’s last earth-
bound day, it was estimated that a
million people had arrived in Flori-
da to witness the beginning ofApol-
lo 11’s epochal voyage to the moon.Space scientist Wernher von Braun developed
the first practical rockets