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im randi kaye. Tens of thousands of nasa employees worked on apollo 11 to put the first man on the moon. You got to meet some of them tonight. One unique individual came to our attention as the film was being researched. Turns out there was only one woman allowed in the control room during the launch. Her remarkable story has been mostly hidden all these years. She played a critical role, and as we learned, spending time with her, she remembers it well. Heres her story. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy but because they are hard. The Space Program in the early 60s was dominated by men. But during the historic launch of apollo 11 on july 16th, 1969 one woman stood out in a sea of men in the control room. 28yearold joann morgan. I was the Instrumentation Controller. The Instrumentation Controller needs to know is there a problem . If so, i need to tell the right people in the test team. So how did you end up the on
she had the moxie of what it took to be in a position of being the only woman in the firing room for apollo 11. 4, 3, 2, 1, 0, liftoff. i got to feel the launch. the vibration of the liftoff once the shock wave hit the building. the false floor shook. my console shook. it was so slow, it just lumbers and you think, oh, it s never going to get off the ground. it just creeps and creeps. there is a little moment of horror. will this thing go? then once it s gone, okay, come on, engine. you can just burn perfectly for me. after the apollo 11 launch, your job was basically over. where did you watch the actual moon landing?
right. there were some men. we would counsel our guys. she had the moxie to be in the position of being the only woman in the firing room for apollo 11. 4, 3, 2, 1, 0, liftoff i got to feel the launch. the vibration of the liftoff once the shock wave hit the building. the false floor shook. my console shook. it was so slow. it just lumbers and you think it will never get off the ground. it just creeps and creams. so there s just a little moment of horror. will this thing go? once it s gone, it s like, okay. come on, engine. just burn perfectly for me.
i just had too much fearlessness in me to let that be any kind of deterrent. reporter: roy tharpe sat next to joann in the firing room. we were all men. joann was there. she was a looker. you could never pull anything over on her because she would take and cut you to pieces because, technically, she was extremely competent. reporter: were there some men, though, who didn t want her in there? right. but no doubt about it, she had the moxie of what it took to be in a position of being the only woman in the firing room for apollo 11. we have main engine start. four, three, two, one, zero, lift-off. i got to feel the launch, the vibration of the lift-off once the shock wave hit the building,
we have engine start, four, three, two, one, liftoff. i got to feel the launch, the vibration of the liftoff once the shock wave hit the building. the floor shook, my console shook. you think god, it will never get off the ground, it creeps and creeps. and once it is gone, it is like come on, engine, you can burn perfectly for me. where did you watch the actual moon landing? my husband is a school teacher, he was wanting to go on a fishing trip. that evening we had a great dinner, a bottle of champagne, went back to watch it on tv with everybody else. the eagle has landed. a bunch of guys about to turn