In event of moon disaster :

[zotz]

Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace.

These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery. But they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice.

There was an interesting article in the paper yesterday about risk. It started with an excerpt from a speech apparently written just before the Apollo 11 landing by William Safire, for Richard Nixon to read to the world if for any reason the two astronauts were not able to leave the moon's surface. I can't find an official copy of this, but it doesn't seem to be disputed anywhere I can see.

Anyway, the text is here.

Comments

[purplerabbits.livejournal.com]

Might they not just have lost communication? You couldn't necessarily tell the moment they died...

[zotz]

"NASA ends communication" implies that NASA makes the decision.

[purplerabbits.livejournal.com]

Yes but I expect that to mean when they close the channel because they're getting nothing back. Maybe I just have too much faith in NASA, but I don't think they'd cut their men off if they were still speaking...

[zotz]

The general assumption - see wikipedia et al - seems to be that the protocol specified the opposite. This, of course, is one of the reasons an official account would be nice.

communication breakdown

[sheridanwilde.livejournal.com]

i'd have thought that nasa would have wanted to collect every last bit of information about the moon landing, even if the moon taking-ff-again proved insuccessful.

and who could resist the opportunity to hear the last words of the first men on the moon?