What If Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin Didn’t Return From the Moon?

On July 20, 1969, Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong became the first human to walk on the moon, and then US President Richard Nixon became the first human to communicate with the moon via a landline, on the other hand, and through broadcast TV (by contacting the spacecraft landing on the moon by the NASA mission controller in Houston); Nixon told the astronauts of the Apollo mission that the whole world was proud of them and continued his speech by saying: “Thanks to what you have done, the heavens are now part of the human world.” At the same time, the US President was ready for further contact with my wife Neil Armstrong and Aldrin who could have become widows.

Even after the lunar module landed in an area called the Sea of Tranquility in night, Neil Armstrong and Aldrin were not guaranteed safe return to their lunar module once again, where their colleague Michael Collins awaited them, far from their return to Earth.

With that in mind, then-US President Richard Nixon asked William Safire, a speechwriter, to write a contingency plan (in case of any disaster on the moon).

As Savir made clear in his 1999 meeting with the Meet The Press program, driving the lunar module back into orbit to meet the main vehicle was one of Apollo 11's most important mission targets, while the Apollo 10 crew had previously tried to drive the lunar module 14.4 kilometers away From the surface of the moon, Apollo 11 astronauts have faced unprecedented challenges while returning the spacecraft back to orbit.

And he went on to meet with Meet the Press: If they can't do that (i.e. return to orbit), they will have to be abandoned on the moon, left to die there, or they either starve to death or commit suicide.

Had that happened then, he would have been forced by NASA to cut contact with astronauts condemned to stay there, and to instruct President Nixon to report to the world what had happened.

The Sapphire plan he sent to the White House chief of staff to US President Nixon included H.R. Haldeman, on July 18, 1969, participated in the news media 30 years later, and was instructed on how Nixon summoned the widows of the astronauts first before giving a speech to the nation explaining how he “spent the fate of the men going to explore in peace, who will keep The moon to rest in peace. ''

Then he continued in the speech: “These brave men - Neil Armstrong and Aldrin - knew that there was no hope for their return, but they also knew that there was hope for humanity through their sacrifices.”

He then continued writing that many people would follow in the footsteps of the Apollo astronauts and they will certainly find their way home, but Aldrin and Neil Armstrong "were the first, and they will always be at the forefront of our hearts.

In the end, the speech was concluded with the words: “For everyone who looks at the moon in the coming nights, he will know that there is a corner from another world, which is the human race forever.”

Despite some setbacks that occurred while on the move in the cockpit of the lunar module, one of the astronauts mistakenly broke the circuit breaker controlling the vehicle's engines, but in the end Aldrin and Neil Armstrong managed to meet with their colleague Collins successfully on a surface the moon and then the three returned to Earth safely.

Fortunately, the president no longer needs to make a dramatic statement of Sapphire, yet you can still read the full speech below, with permission from the museum and library of former US President Richard Nixon.