The button
A few hours before landing, the ABORT button on Apollo 14's lunar module started setting itself. Nobody had pressed it. If it set again on the way down, the computer would call off the landing and fly the crew back to orbit.
Transcript
- Theo
That's it? That's the ABORT button. (transl: mild surprise: "is that all it is?". Use the same word for "button" as in Mitchell's radio line below.)
- Marion
Press that on the way down, and the landing's off. (transl: "you" is general here. "On the way down" is the descent to the Moon's surface. "The landing's off" means it is called off. Said flatly, as a fact; keep it one short sentence.)
- Theo
Handy. (transl: a dry joke: "useful", said ironically about a button that cancels the landing. One word if the language allows.)
- Marion
Unless it presses itself. (transl: the fault in this story: the button seemed to press itself. Keep it short and dry.) Apollo 14, a few hours from landing. (transl: she sets the scene, like a date line. Keep it this short.) I was in a back room in Houston that night... doesn't matter. Listen. (transl: "a back room" is a support room away from the main Mission Control room, the same phrase the narrator used in the introduction. She starts to say something personal and cuts herself off; keep the break and the quick change of subject. "Listen" points Theo to the recording that starts now.)
- Theo
He sounds bored. (transl: "he" is the voice from the radio just heard. "Bored" means flat and unexcited; Theo is teasing. The idea comes back at stop 3 as "They still sound bored"; use a plain everyday word.)
- Marion
They all did. Cleared the bit. An hour later, back again, and then again. Check next one.
- Theo
Tapping it? (transl: he echoes Haise's "tapping the panel" in disbelief; use the same verb as in Haise's line. "It" is the panel. Stop 3 calls back to it with "Tapping panels".)
- Theo
They fixed it by hitting it. (transl: "hitting" is his joking exaggeration of "tapping", like knocking a machine to make it work. Use an ordinary verb for hitting, not the tapping verb, so the exaggeration is heard.)
- Marion
Until the next time. Then Mitchell asks.
- Theo
What solution? (transl: he echoes "solution" from the radio line just heard; use the same word. Curious, not doubtful.)
- Marion
It was caused probably by a speck of metal. Inside a sealed switch.
- Theo
So you open it... (transl: "you" is general. "It" is the sealed switch. He trails off and Marion cuts in.)
- Marion
Can't. You tell the computer to ignore it. A line of numbers at a time, up by radio.
- Theo
And every line read back. (transl: "read back" is radio procedure: the receiver repeats each line so the sender can check it. Use the standard aviation term; stop 2 explains it with the same term. He finishes Marion's thought.)
- Marion
Every line. (transl: she repeats his words to confirm them. As short as the language allows, with the same word for "line".)
- Theo
Did every number get up there right? In time? (transl: the question the whole story answers at stop 3. "Up there" means to the spacecraft. "Right" means correct, with no mistakes; Marion's "That's what right sounds like" at stop 3 answers it, so use a plain word. Keep two short questions.)
- Marion
Let's see. (transl: "let's find out". She knows the answer and keeps it for later.) Some of it's written on a page in the next case. (transl: "it" is the fix, the lines of numbers. "The case" is a glass display case in the gallery. "The page" is the title of the next stop; use the plain word for a sheet of paper.) Come on. (transl: a friendly "let's go".)
This guide was created by humans with the help of AI. Learn more →
Fact and fiction
This story mixes fiction with fact. Marion and Theo are invented, and so is their visit. They stand in for the many people who followed that night from the edges, listening rather than deciding. Neither of them takes credit for anything a real person did.
Everything else is held to the record. Every word on the radio was really said, taken from NASA's air-to-ground recordings. The fault, the fix and the times come from NASA's transcripts and the Apollo 14 Mission Report. Where the sources disagree or say nothing, we have left it out.