Up to this point, everything Apollo 11 has done was completed by Apollo 10's dress rehearsal in May. At 102:33:05, Eagle's descent engine ignites, sending the spacecraft and Armstrong and Aldrin down towards the lunar surface.
After the first minute of PDI, Aldrin reported that the two LM guidance systems - primary and abort - agreed closely as to the spacecraft's trajectory.
The first indication of trouble wasn't far behind:
At 102:36:11, Armstrong reported that Eagle passed its visual mark for PDI+3:00 early; the landing would be further downrange than expected.
At 102:37:22, CAPCOM Charlie Duke gave the astronauts a status update:
"You are GO to continue powered descent."
So far, so good - but landing on the Moon can't be this easy, can it?
"[I]f we fail, then the whole world,…all that we have known and cared for…will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that…men will still say, 'This was their finest hour.'”
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