More than small steps
Fascinating facts you probably didn't know about the Apollo missions
Image: Brian McGowan
There are dozens of movies about the Apollo missions –and with good reason! Sure, we all know the legendary anecdotes about Apollo 11, like how many people were watching or the by-now-legendary words that Armstrong uttered. But what happened in the rest of the missions? Here are some of the most interesting stories from the twelve men who walked on the Moon and the teams who got them there!
1
"One small step" vs. "Man, that may have been a small one…"
Neil Armstrong stepped onto the lunar surface with his carefully planned line: "That is one small step for a man , one giant leap for mankind." Pete Conrad from Apollo 12 decided to have some fun with that.
Conrad was short, and he had bet a reporter five hundred dollars that he could say whatever he wanted when he stepped down. This is the line he went for, as documented in NASA transcripts: "Whoopie! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that is a long one for me ."
2
Apollo 12 and the lightning strike that tried to end everything
Apollo 12 was struck by lightning not once but twice, only 36 seconds after launch. The electrical surge wiped out telemetry in Mission Control.
The flight looked doomed until flight controller John Aaron said the now legendary instruction: "Try SCE to Aux." Conrad responded with, "What the hell is that?" because almost no one remembered what SCE meant.
Luckily, Alan Bean understood what to do. He flipped the switch, the instruments rebooted, and Apollo 12 kept flying.
3
Apollo 13 was just as dramatic as the movie showed
The explosion of an oxygen tank in Apollo 13’s service module really did turn the mission into a race against time. The line "Houston, we have a problem" is Hollywood’s adaptation, however. The real line, spoken by Jack Swigert and repeated by Jim Lovell, was "Houston, we have had a problem."
Other real drama: the crew used the Lunar Module as a lifeboat, battled rising CO₂ levels, manually aligned the spacecraft using Earth’s horizon, and returned home with only a sliver of battery life left.
4
Apollo 16 astronauts drove a moon rover like teenagers with a new car
The lunar rover was a marvel: lightweight, foldable, and capable of reaching 13 to 18 km/h depending on conditions.
John Young and Charlie Duke from Apollo 16 were so thrilled with it that Mission Control had to repeatedly remind them not to drive too fast on uneven terrain.
Duke even recorded one of the wildest moments of the program when Young yelled, "Look at that… look at that!" as dust flew up behind them.
5
The dust that drove astronauts nuts
Moon dust is sharp, sticky, and electrostatically clingy. Astronauts from Apollo 11 onward complained that it smelled like burnt gunpowder and got everywhere. Harrison Schmitt from Apollo 17 suffered "lunar hay fever" after breathing dust tracked into the cabin.
NASA later became mildly obsessed with studying how dangerous that dust might be… and it turns out it is genuinely abrasive to suits and could be risky to lungs.
6
Apollo 11 and the computer that said "nope"
Just minutes before landing on July 20, 1969, the Apollo Guidance Computer flashed a "1202" program alarm. In non-NASA terms, the computer was overloaded and essentially panicking .
But guidance officer Steve Bales had trained for this exact situation and cleared the crew to proceed. Armstrong later said this call was one of the mission’s most decisive moments. So yes, the first Moon landing almost got canceled by a stressed-out computer.
7
The golf shot that echoed through history
On Apollo 14, Alan Shepard smuggled a makeshift golf club head along with two golf balls.
On the moon, he attached it to a sample collection tool and made the most famous swing in the Solar System. The ball truly did travel far, although probably not the "miles and miles" Shepard joked about. Still, it remains the only round of lunar golf ever played.
8
Apollo 15’s postal controversy
The Apollo 15 astronauts carried unauthorized stamped envelopes to sell to collectors later.
This became a scandal when the deal came to light. NASA was furious, the crew was reprimanded, and the agency tightened rules on what astronauts could take to space.
The event is fully documented and remains one of the strangest side stories of the program.
9
Twelve people walked on the moon
Between 1969 and 1972, exactly twelve astronauts walked on the lunar surface.
The list, in chronological order, is: Armstrong, Aldrin (Apollo 11), Conrad, Bean (Apollo 12), Shepard, Mitchell (Apollo 14), Scott, Irwin (Apollo 15), Young, Duke (Apollo 16), and Cernan and Schmitt (Apollo 17). Cernan remains the last human to have walked on the Moon.
10
The last moonwalk included a love letter
During Apollo 17, Gene Cernan traced his daughter’s initials TDC on the lunar dust.
As he said his farewell words on the Moon, he hoped the world would continue exploring. His last line: "We leave as we came and, God willing, as we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind."
