20 July 1969, Neil Armstrong and Edwin E. Aldrin are about to make history. Harnesses tied to the walls of the narrow space of the lunar module of Apollo XI, both expect the moon landing astronauts that become the first men on the surface of the Moon, the first step in an alien land.In the central computer, a red light indicates the alarm has occurred in the 1201 panel of instruction, description of the problem is too cryptic, understandable only to the programmer who created it. He is from Houston who reassures them: the amount of information you are getting the computer is too large to process in real time and warns that there is only a slight delay. The decline may continue. The flashing red light accelerates.
"1202 alarm". News of Houston are not yet so-stressing: the computer can no longer, no longer reliable and there are, at this point, two alternatives. The first, abort, release the lander and begin the ascent to return to lunar orbit. The second, take the controls and lowered manually. After years of training and 400,000 kilometers, watching the lunar soil so close, its berths Armstrong broke loose and, with the aid of instructions Aldrin continued the descent. First, a rocky terrain. On the second attempt, a slope too steep.
The third, a phrase from Houston: "Eagle 30 seconds." Just the time remaining fuel: o land or turn around. Soon after, a phrase commonly attributed to Armstrong and Aldrin actually uttered: "Houston, this base, tranquility, the eagle has landed."
This tells that historic day the engineer Carlos González Pintado, for whom that phrase Aldrin outperforms the historic "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." At age 23, the now former head of NASA operations in Communications Complex Robledo de Chavela, was part of the team from the base of Fresnedillas Olive, in the mountains of Madrid, served as a liaison between the astronauts Apollo XI and Houston. "My job was to radio, find the best signal for receiving and transmitting messages that are sent in both directions. Heard conversations Armstrong and Aldrin even before Houston "Gonzalez explained in a chat with this newspaper.
"Put your foot on the moon was something symbolic, but at that time we were in the lunar soil, that was terrible and from the base of Madrid could live exclusively. After landing they told Armstrong and Aldrin to rest and some sleep and me the truth, I was amused. We were there, clapping like crazy and thought we would be unable to sleep that night. How could they sleep with what they had just experienced? "He recalls.
When Apollo XI landed on the lunar surface, the Madrid team completed its work. They had lived their historical moment. For that, 45 years later, everyone remembers, still three hours.
"Americans organized everything to the millimeter, so that the first man on the moon happens on a schedule in which the United States, with its eight time zones, could see it live. The astronauts could not leave the capsule at any time and responsibility that the lander to land on the surface at the right time was Madrid. We live in a strange way, between the responsibility of knowing that we could not fail and proud to be part of something historic. "
Obviously, Armstrong and Aldrin did not sleep between the moon landing and the order to take out of Houston. Gonzalez's team either. On the moon, the astronauts set out to mess with tranquility in the moon suit, a task that takes about two hours. In Madrid, we were watching TV and listening to what was going on inside the capsule.
Gonzalez remembers the quiet and lack of emotion communication between the ship and the base of the NASA, even when informed of problems and setbacks. "I am convinced that they had a very important psychological training." However, since Fresnadillas also controlled biomedical constants astronauts, and the beating of his heart betrayed Armstrong at its most extreme point. Some last minute changes in the design of the capsule to reduce weight minimally reduced the hatch and survival backpack Armstrong kept him from leaving for her as he had trained in the trials. "It was the time of the mission in his heart beat faster, up to 156 beats per minute." Changing position several times, got the proper pitch to get out. The rest, is history.
In full space race, NASA designed a network of stations around the world that allow monitoring mission with a period of 24 hours. To achieve this, they needed at least three separate bases 120 degrees longitude each other. In 1964, the American agency already had two of them: one in California, in the Mojave Desert, and another in Canberra (Australia). The third was to fall in Europe, in the area comprising Spain, southern France, Italy and northern Morocco.
The political stability of Franco's Spain and the dollar-peseta, very beneficial to the Americans finished tip the balance towards the Spanish territory, and two bases were built in the outskirts of Madrid, one in Robledo de Chavela, which was also the place of receipt of the first Mars satellite image of history and another in Fresnedillas Oliva, both antennas 26 meters in diameter. Later a third complex was built in Cebreros.
While work on the ambitious project of NASA advanced Madrid, Carlos Gonzalez had returned from the United States, where he finished high school, and began his studies in the capital of industrial engineering, specializing in electronics, as he began to work Telefonica. "Then I saw a newspaper advertisement that technicians needed to speak good English to work in the new facility at NASA and I did not think." In a Spain in which a budding engineer with perfect English was a freak, Gonzalez had the first interview with American in 66, but without the completed military service was not eligible for the post. He pointed to the military as a volunteer and in 1968, at age 22, began working at the base of Fresnedillos, shortly before NASA launched the first manned Apollo, Apollo VII project.
United States spent during the sixties and seventies 0.2 percent of GDP to Project Apollo, which is a significant amount of billions of dollars. However, scientific and economic effort had a fully politically motivated. The Soviets had launched the first artificial satellite in history (Sputnik, 1957), since the first living being in orbit (Laika the dog, 1957) and the first man sent into space (Yuri Gagarin, 1961). "Americans give a really important need in the space race that were clearly losing chime. Go to the moon was a matter of prestige rather than scientific interest, "González values.
"In the moment that the space race is won, the American taxpayer begins to seriously question the decision to keep sending missions into space. NASA had projected twenty pitches in the Apollo program and, through certain subterfuges managed to send 15, 16 and 17 The last three or came out. There was no interest at all. "
Since the loss of the political component, the frenzied activity in the United States Aerospace has slowed. "After the Apollo XI, we were convinced that in 20 years in the nineties as much, we got to Mars. Now I can not see a manned spacecraft to Mars in the next fifty years. Come on, surely, I'm not going to see, "says the engineer.
With the gained space race, NASA is working on the ferry and started a period of international collaboration to reduce costs has remained until today. Yet, asked about the biggest challenge of the current space research, Gonzalez does point to Mars. "He still thinks that there is no water, probably in the subsoil and therefore some kind of life. That way the shots: discover whether there has been life on Mars and if in the past was a planet very similar to Earth. "Yes, clarifies that the exploration that arises in the near future scientists involves using vehicles such as Curiosity, but not the design manned missions, despite technological advances, are still extremely expensive.
In this context, the United States may lose its status as world leader in the aerospace industry and research? "No, not yet. The many years of experience and have the American network of monitoring stations is greater than any other power. Now there are many countries that are launching a space adventure, but through navigation systems, communication networks or other collaborative NASA. "
Upon completion of the Apollo program Carlos Gonzalez continued to work on the first space shuttle missions and the Skylab and Apollo-Soyuz later, from the base of Robledo de Chavela, which ended the three Madrid stations centralized. He ended his career as head of operations manned missions that NASA continued to run from Madrid.
With the 45th anniversary of the first man on the moon, have returned to raise the voices of naysayers Armstrong's feat, theories that the Apollo XI was an assembly of American Government in the political context of the Cold War. "Despite the Cold War and despite the bitter hatred that seemed to govern the relationship between the two powers, there was once a Soviet Lunik and an American Apollo would pass too close to each other.
The Americans asked the Soviets during the decisive moments to put out the mission and Soviet Lunik did. All this confrontation, this absolute nonsense world, disappear when the truly decisive moment came to science. The world's scientists write for everyone. As for conspiracy theories, I can confirm to anyone who wants to hear it from my mouth that man reached the moon. I was there, I saw the antennas pointing to the moon, I saw the sign that I came from there and how I bounced. Everyone is free to have the opinion that it considers appropriate. "
Since his retirement, the former head of NASA operations lectures and writes articles and essays on past, present and future space exploration. "You spend a huge part of your life at work, but if you're lucky enough to work on what you like, after you retire you keep working. And I was doing what I liked. "
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