‘Moon disaster’ speech that would have been read to world if Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong were stranded

Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong completed one of humanity’s greatest-ever accomplishments, thanks to Apollo 11, but what if they’d been less successful and ended up stranded on the Moon?

The Moon landing in July 1969 remains one of the pinnacles of human exploration.

Of course, it had every chance of going horribly wrong on that momentous day.

And this is the speech that the President prepared should the crew have been stranded.

DISCOVER SBX CARS: The global premium car auction platform powered by Supercar Blondie

What would have happened if Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin had been stranded on the Moon?

Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong made history for humanity in July of 1969.

The Apollo 11 program saw Aldrin, Armstrong, and Michael Collins travel to the Moon.

Of course, it still remains a miracle that the mission was as successful as it was.

In fact, it seemed far more likely that such a dangerous mission could end terribly.

And it turns out that President Richard Nixon’s administration prepared for the worst.

A memo, dated July 18th, 1969, was sent to HR Haldeman, Nixon’s Chief of Staff.

The memo, nicknamed the ‘Safire Memo’ contained a speech written by William Safire.

The speech makes for pretty somber reading, and was prepared in the event that the crew was stranded on the Moon.

Interestingly, the memo contains several signposts as to what would have happened.

The plans state that Mission Control at NASA, at some point, would have to cease all communications with the astronauts.

A public ritual would then have taken place, whereby a priest would commend the astronauts’ souls ‘to the deepest of the deep,’ and recite the Lord’s Prayer.

Phone calls to the wives of the astronauts – the ‘widows-to-be’ – in the speech, would have also been made.

The doomsday speech that was never needed

Thankfully, the mission ended up being a complete success, with all astronauts safely returning home.

The origins of the Apollo 11 mission actually trace back to President John F. Kennedy.

On September 12, 1963, President Kennedy delivered a speech at Rice University in Houston, Texas.

“We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard,” he said in the speech.

Sadly, the then-President never lived to see his ambitions of Moon travel realized.

But the goal was ultimately achieved with the launch of the Apollo 11 mission in July 1969.

On July 21st, 1969, Neil Armstrong officially became the first human being to walk on the Moon.

It was on that day that some of the most famous words in history were uttered from the surface.

“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

It is certainly a good thing that the ‘Safire Memo’ was never needed.The post ‘Moon disaster’ speech that would have been read to world if Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong were stranded appeared first on Supercar Blondie.