# President Nixon's speech (Announcing The Death of The Apollo Astronauts)? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 17, 2008, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-nixons-speech-announcing-the-death-of-the-apollo-astronauts/437987 "2008-02-17T15:33:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2008, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-nixons-speech-announcing-the-death-of-the-apollo-astronauts/437987/1 "2008-02-17T15:33:28Z")
I heard that Nixon had prepared a speech to give, in case the Lunar Excursion Module failed (marooning the two astronauts on the moon). Anybody know if the text of this has been preserved? I suppose it would have a pretty horrible death-running out of oxygen and eventual suffocation. did these guys have suicide kits? Does anybody know what NASA had estimated as the probability of the LEM’s engines failure to fire when departing the moon? ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2008, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-nixons-speech-announcing-the-death-of-the-apollo-astronauts/437987/2 "2008-02-17T16:57:49Z")
[Google is your lord and master](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/390933.stm). ---
**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2008, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-nixons-speech-announcing-the-death-of-the-apollo-astronauts/437987/3 "2008-02-17T17:54:10Z")
I’ve always heard they never had suicide kits, because the easiest and quickest way to commit suicide in space (or on the moon, I suppose, vacuum and all) would be to open the hatch. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2008, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-nixons-speech-announcing-the-death-of-the-apollo-astronauts/437987/4 "2008-02-17T21:09:09Z")
[QUOTE=whiterabbit] I’ve always heard they never had suicide kits, because the easiest and quickest way to commit suicide in space (or on the moon, I suppose, vacuum and all) would be to open the hatch. [/QUOTE] I’m sure you’re right. All federal employees are issued suicide kits on their first day of employee orientation. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Tenar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@Tenar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tenar)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2008, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-nixons-speech-announcing-the-death-of-the-apollo-astronauts/437987/5 "2008-02-17T21:41:13Z")
Thanks to **ralph124c** and **friedo** for making me aware of this. What a chilling speech–except for this bit, which I found to be unintentionally funny: > [@](#): > > Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace. ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2008, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-nixons-speech-announcing-the-death-of-the-apollo-astronauts/437987/6 "2008-02-17T23:23:14Z")
The Smoking Gun reproduces [the original White House memo](http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0808051apollo1.html) from William Safire - yes, the same - to Haldeman with his proposed text for the President’s speech and the other statements that would have to be made. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2008, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-nixons-speech-announcing-the-death-of-the-apollo-astronauts/437987/7 "2008-02-18T01:58:13Z")
There’s this one, and Eisenhower’s speech accepting responsibility for the failure of the Normandy invasion. Anyone know of a list of other contingency speeches that were never needed? (I would have wanted Nixon to wait instead until Armstrong and Aldrin were actually dead first, but maybe that’s just me.) ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2008, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-nixons-speech-announcing-the-death-of-the-apollo-astronauts/437987/8 "2008-02-18T02:19:09Z")
Buzz Aldrin said on a TV interview (no, I don’t have a cite) that they did NOT have suicide pills/kits. He said that he and Armstrong would have spent every single minute they had alive trying to fix the LEM, and the only way they would have died would have been running out of oxygen. Suicide was not an option, according to Buzz… ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2008, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-nixons-speech-announcing-the-death-of-the-apollo-astronauts/437987/9 "2008-02-18T02:32:58Z")
Doesn’t surprise me at all, having met Gene Krantz and talked to him about the space program the way it was then (as opposed to now) and the men involved. Hell, his autobiography is called _Failure is Not an Option_. ---
**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2008, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-nixons-speech-announcing-the-death-of-the-apollo-astronauts/437987/10 "2008-02-18T03:02:56Z")
I wasn’t saying they _would_ commit suicide, but only mentioning a theoretical method. Just to clarify. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2008, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-nixons-speech-announcing-the-death-of-the-apollo-astronauts/437987/11 "2008-02-18T03:08:50Z")
[QUOTE=jtgain] Buzz Aldrin said on a TV interview (no, I don’t have a cite) that they did NOT have suicide pills/kits. He said that he and Armstrong would have spent every single minute they had alive trying to fix the LEM, and the only way they would have died would have been running out of oxygen. Suicide was not an option, according to Buzz.. [/QUOTE] It’s pretty much covered in _every_ book on the Apollo program. For some reason, everyone thinks that the astronauts have the suicide pills. I can’t really imagine them _wanting_ the things. They’re not the kind of guys to give up, and a suicide pill is most certainly the ultimate form of surrender. None of them liked talking about the CM pilot running sims on how to get home if the guys didn’t make it back from the surface of the Moon. ---
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2008, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-nixons-speech-announcing-the-death-of-the-apollo-astronauts/437987/12 "2008-02-18T03:14:45Z")
Every time I read the speech, I love this bit: > [@](#): > > For every human being who looks up at the moon in the nights to come will know that there is some corner of another world that is forever mankind. It’s powerful stuff! Had this happened, would they have tried to retrieve the bodies on the next mission? ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2008, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-nixons-speech-announcing-the-death-of-the-apollo-astronauts/437987/13 "2008-02-18T04:07:04Z")
[QUOTE=Speaker for the Dead] Every time I read the speech, I love this bit: It’s powerful stuff! Had this happened, would they have tried to retrieve the bodies on the next mission? [/QUOTE] At the risk of sounding callous, we only had a finite supply of Saturn V’s, and a lot more landing sites to visit. Assuming the program wasn’t completely shelved after a fatal catastrophe like that, we’d be wasting a scientific expedition (and risking the lives of two astronauts in a spacecraft thats already killed two men) to bring back a couple hundred pounds of mummies. I’d say an Apollo lander makes as good a mausoleum as any. And if we change our minds…it’s not like they’re going anywhere, right? A few decades isn’t going to make much of a difference. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2008, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-nixons-speech-announcing-the-death-of-the-apollo-astronauts/437987/14 "2008-02-18T04:11:25Z")
[QUOTE=ralph124c] I heard that Nixon had prepared a speech to give, in case the Lunar Excursion Module failed (marooning the two astronauts on the moon). Anybody know if the text of this has been preserved? I suppose it would have a pretty horrible death-running out of oxygen and eventual suffocation. did these guys have suicide kits? Does anybody know what NASA had estimated as the probability of the LEM’s engines failure to fire when departing the moon? [/QUOTE] Two more points: 1. It wouldn’t have been a particularly horrible death. As the oxygen levels began to decrease, and the CO2 levels began to increase, the astronauts would begin to feel sleepy and drift off for the long count. Not painful at all. Aldrin said that in the same interview which I don’t have a cite for. 2. The LEMs engines would not fail to fire. It’s not like your car on a cold winter morning. It was a simple mixture of two liquids to cause an ignition. No distributer caps, or plugs and wires. Mix liquids A and B and get a big fire underneath.. ---
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2008, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-nixons-speech-announcing-the-death-of-the-apollo-astronauts/437987/15 "2008-02-18T05:11:45Z")
[QUOTE=Ranchoth] At the risk of sounding callous, we only had a finite supply of Saturn V’s, and a lot more landing sites to visit. Assuming the program wasn’t completely shelved after a fatal catastrophe like that, we’d be wasting a scientific expedition (and risking the lives of two astronauts in a spacecraft thats already killed two men) to bring back a couple hundred pounds of mummies. I’d say an Apollo lander makes as good a mausoleum as any. And if we change our minds…it’s not like they’re going anywhere, right? A few decades isn’t going to make much of a difference. [/QUOTE] Nah, that’s what I figured. It’s sort of a pride thing–“we put a man on the Moon… and _left him there_.” ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2008, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-nixons-speech-announcing-the-death-of-the-apollo-astronauts/437987/16 "2008-02-18T05:49:56Z")
> [@Speaker for the Dead](#): > > Every time I read the speech, I love this bit: > > > [@](#): > > > > For every human being who looks up at the moon in the nights to come will know that there is some corner of another world that is forever mankind. > > It’s powerful stuff! Actually, this sentence sounds like it was inspired by Rupert Brooke’s poem, [“The Soldier.”](http://www.bartleby.com/103/149.html) The first two lines of Brooke’s poem are as follows: > [@Rupert Brooke](#): > > \*If I should die, think only this of me; > That there’s some corner of a foreign field > That is for ever England. \* ---
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2008, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-nixons-speech-announcing-the-death-of-the-apollo-astronauts/437987/17 "2008-02-18T06:29:53Z")
[QUOTE=Spoons] Actually, this sentence sounds like it was inspired by Rupert Brooke’s poem, [“The Soldier.”](http://www.bartleby.com/103/149.html) The first two lines of Brooke’s poem are as follows: [/QUOTE] Two lines, eh? 😉 That might be why the line seemed so familiar, even the first time I read the speech. I’ve never read the whole poem by Brooke, but I’m sure that line’s been quoted at more than one Remembrance Day ceremony. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2008, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-nixons-speech-announcing-the-death-of-the-apollo-astronauts/437987/18 "2008-02-18T09:27:54Z")
[QUOTE=Speaker for the Dead] Two lines, eh? 😉 [/QUOTE] Brooke’s poem is a little odd structurally. When read by a reader who knows how to correctly interpret the poem, it does indeed sound like the first two lines. There is very little break between “field” and “That,” but the caesura after “England” is a dead stop. So three lines on the page, but two lines in practice. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2008, 9:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-nixons-speech-announcing-the-death-of-the-apollo-astronauts/437987/19 "2008-02-18T09:32:37Z")
[QUOTE=jtgain] Buzz Aldrin said on a TV interview (no, I don’t have a cite) that they did NOT have suicide pills/kits. He said that he and Armstrong would have spent every single minute they had alive trying to fix the LEM, and the only way they would have died would have been running out of oxygen. Suicide was not an option, according to Buzz.. [/QUOTE] That’s the test pilot training, at least in part - pilots are trained to keep trying to fix whatever’s wrong until they themselves are no longer functioning. Look what happened to Apollo 13 - those aren’t the sort of guys who give up and die. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2008, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-nixons-speech-announcing-the-death-of-the-apollo-astronauts/437987/20 "2008-02-18T10:15:58Z")
I’ve just watched all 12 hours of _From the Earth to the Moon_, and apart from the sucky last two episodes that I endured last night\*, the overall feeling I got from it was _holy living fuck, what were they **thinking**?!_ I mean, today we glibly go “yeah, man has walked on the moon”, but when you actually think about what they did, and the risks involved! The timescales. The paucity of the technology. The astonishing, foolhardy prototype techniques that were do-or-die. Two men, alone on the surface of a celestial body, standing by a craft that had never been tested for its purpose in situ. Theirs was a level of bravery - and insanity - that I simply cannot comprehend. \*As well as the un-fast-forwardable JFK speech at the start of each episode that got stuck in my head. “We choose to go to the moon… We choose to go to the moon… We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things.” What are these other things, JFK? Pork Marilyn Monroe? Get shot? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-nixons-speech-announcing-the-death-of-the-apollo-astronauts/437987.md?page=2)