Behind the scenes of the world famous broadcast - how was the connection made between Apollo 11 and the Earth in July 1969?

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the landing of man on the moon, Motorola reveals the communication system designed for the mission

July 20, 1969 - The famous sentence from the moon reaches the earth through radio technology. The S-band transmitters installed on Apollo 11 and in the command center transmitted telemetry, voice communications, biomedical data and the first television signals in history between the Earth and the Moon.
The American Motorola company then had faith in all means of communication of Apollo 11 and the landings before it. She is also the one who designed and built the famous antenna pod specially developed for Neil Armstrong. It was highly innovative equipment at the time that was used to process television signals on Earth, as well as equipment responsible for the safety functions and precise tracking from the moment of launch, through the journey to the moon and until landing.
The first words from the moon on radio and television in the homes of millions of families
For the first time in history the astronauts and the command center could be seen and heard through the innovative communication equipment, millions of people around the world watched and listened when astronaut Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon 400,000 km from Earth and said the immortal sentence: "That's one small step for a man, A big step for humanity." These words passed thanks to the same backpack to the antenna - which included a small antenna that transmitted the words and messages to a transmitter in the spaceship and from there to Earth.

Less energy than a refrigerator lamp

In fact, in every Apollo mission, Motorola equipment and communication systems were used in the USA from the pre-launch stage, the launch, the journey to the moon and landing on it. The Motorola radio was then called: S-band Apollo provided the crew's only contact with Earth beyond a distance of 48,000. The small electronic unit that weighed only 14.5 kg required less energy for communication with the Earth than the amount of energy consumed by a typical refrigerator lamp at the time - only about 35 watts.

The Apollo communications model was based on a transmitter and receiver that sent radio signals to three ground stations on Earth in Spain, Australia and California. These translated the signals into FM transmission and transferred them to the radio and television broadcasts. The transmission unit was able to handle the transfer of data to 67 functions at the same time.

The communication unit, which was advanced at the time, enabled substantial help for the team members and spared them the need to manually operate approximately 24 devices and all 500 switches.

In fact, this was not the first time that communication was made between space vehicles and the Earth, Motorola's transmitters provided radio communication between space vehicles and the Earth in previous missions as well, where they transmitted voice, messages, video signals and data. These independent radios were essential to track the spacecraft's speed and position and to retrieve data and operate the electronics on board the spacecraft.

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