RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon on this very day in 1969.
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NEIL ARMSTRONG: Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.
MARTIN: Before that moment, though, as their Apollo 11 craft hurdled out into space for the historic mission, the astronauts, along with a third, Michael Collins, let their guard down and just sat in marvel at what they were seeing.
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MICHAEL COLLINS: I have no conception of where we're pointed or which way we are or a crapping thing. But it's a beautiful low pressure cell out here.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
The Apollo astronauts had just completed their first orbit of Earth after launch, and they were marveling at that view.
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ARMSTRONG: Stand by for the gimbal motors off.
COLLINS: Pitch one, off. Mark.
BUZZ ALDRIN: Got it.
COLLINS: YAW 1, off. Mark.
ALDRIN: Got it.
COLLINS: Pitch two, off. Mark.
GREENE: Now, we should remember these are highly trained professionals going through checklist after checklist to make sure everything is in place for those first steps on the moon.
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COLLINS: The moon is there, boy, in all its splendor.
ARMSTRONG: Man, it's a...
COLLINS: Plaster of Paris gray to me.
ARMSTRONG: Don't look at it. Here we come up.
COLLINS: OK.
MARTIN: Here they are entering lunar orbit debating the color of the moon's surface.
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ALDRIN: Woo. Well, I have to vote with the 10 crew. That thing is brown.
COLLINS: Sure is.
ARMSTRONG: Looks tan to me.
COLLINS: But when I first saw it, at that other sun angle, it really looked gray.
MARTIN: Gray, tan, whatever the color of the moon's surface, the astronauts did complete that historic mission.
GREENE: Yeah. Their professionalism, their courage, their wonder all still remembered 51 years later.
(SOUNDBITE OF AK'S "WANDERLUST") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.