The page
The fix went up a line at a time, and every line was read back. People slipped. The read-back caught them.
Transcript
- Theo
Right! (transl: "now this I know", recognition, not "correct".) Read-backs. (transl: the standard aviation term, the same one used at the previous stop.) This bit I know. (transl: "this bit" means "this part"; it is not the computer "bit" from the previous stop.)
- Marion
Go on, then. Explain it. (transl: a dry, teasing challenge; she already knows.)
- Theo
Easy. I read a line, the pilot reads it back, I check it. (transl: "I" is Theo as an air traffic controller, describing his job. "Line" is the same word as at the previous stop.) Wrong, I say it again. (transl: "if it's wrong, I say it again"; keep it clipped.) Nothing counts until it comes back right. (transl: "counts" means is accepted. "Comes back right" means is read back correctly; "right" is the same plain word as in the previous stop's question.)
- Marion
Textbook. (transl: "exactly by the book", dry approval.) Same with us. (transl: Mission Control worked the same way in 1971.) The first version went up an hour and a half before the descent. (transl: "the first version" of the fix. "Went up" means was read up to the spacecraft by radio, as at the previous stop. "The descent" is the descent to the Moon's surface.) Mitchell wrote it down as it came. Here he is reading it back. (transl: "here he is" introduces the recording that follows.)
- Theo
"Is it four thousand?" He wasn't even sure. (transl: he quotes Mitchell's question from the radio; use the same words as there.) Two slips in one line. (transl: "slips" are small mistakes; the two are "05" and "four thousand". "Line" is the same word as earlier.)
- Marion
And both caught. (transl: both slips were noticed and corrected by Houston. Use the everyday verb for catching a mistake; it comes back at stop 3.) The catch: with that code in, only the backup computer could abort. (transl: "the catch" means the hidden drawback, a deliberate echo of "caught". Keep the echo if the language allows; if not, keep the meaning and let the echo go. "That code" is the first version of the fix, keyed into the computer. The lander had a second, backup guidance computer; with the fix in, only it could fly an abort.) Then Houston came back with a better one. (transl: "came back with" means replied with. "A better one" is a better version of the fix.)
- Theo
Slicker. (transl: he repeats Haise's word, amused by it; the same word as in the radio line.)
- Marion
Neater, he means. (transl: she explains the word in plain terms.) They worked it out while the crew were behind the Moon, out of radio contact. (transl: "they" are the people on the ground, in Houston and at MIT.) When they came round again, there was half an hour to go, and a new list. (transl: "they" here is the crew: their spacecraft came round from behind the Moon, back in radio contact. "Half an hour to go" means before the descent. "A new list" is the new list of keystrokes.)
- Theo
Someone's written it in the margin of this page. (transl: "it" is the first line of the new list. Keep "someone": whose handwriting it is is not known.) "V twenty one, N one, E. Ten ten, E. One-oh-seven, E." (transl: he reads the note aloud as written. Use the same spoken numbers as in Haise's correction below.)
- Marion
The first line of the new code. Listen to the middle number. (transl: "the middle number" is "ten ten". Don't name it.)
- Theo
One-oh-one. (transl: he repeats Mitchell's slip, with the same spoken form as in the radio line.) He dropped a digit, and they had it straight away. (transl: "dropped a digit" means left one digit out: ten ten became one-oh-one. "They had it" means Houston caught the mistake; use the same verb for catching a mistake as Marion's "both caught". Pleased, a little proud of them.)
- Theo
Gran...? (transl: he has noticed she has gone quiet. Gentle and questioning.)
- Marion
Hm? Yes. (transl: she comes back from her thoughts and brushes it off.) Keypad's this way. (transl: the computer keypad in the next display, the title of the next stop. Brisk.)
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.