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Apollo 11 simulations: 'You would get the sweaty palms'

Fast decision making, accurate communication and readiness for any number of emergency situations during the final descent to the moon were tested to the limit in simulation exercises. Through these exhaustive dress rehearsals, the training team in mission control saw that nothing was overlooked, and these sessions were intense.

'You have a training team, led by a simulation supervisor and their job is to come up with mission scenarios that are utterly realistic and will train every aspect of the crew and controllers' and flight directors' knowledge. Training was about as real as you could get. You would get the sweaty palms. It was no longer training - it was real. The same emotions, the same feelings. The same adrenaline would flow.'

Gene Kranz, Nasa flight director for the Apollo 11 missing, describes the experience of being involved in these simulations.

Photo: Neil Armstrong in lunar module simulator in the Flight Crew Training Building at Kennedy, June 1969 Credit: NASA

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