ARMSTRONG DESCENDING LADDER FROM LUNAR MODULE: STANDING ON SURFACE OF MOON AND DESCRIBING LUNAR SOIL; ALDRIN ON LADDER AND JUMPING TO THE MOON'S SURFACE; ARMSTRONG JUMPS UP AND DOWN IN B/G; US FLAG RAISED ON LUNAR SURFACE; ARMSTRONG LEAPING AROUND MOON'S SURFACE IN "KANGAROO WALK"; PRESIDENT NIXON (SUPERIMPOSED ON SHOT OF ASTRONAUTS) SPEAKS TO ALDRIN AND ARMSTRONG VIA TELEPHONE LINK: ASTRONAUTS COLLECT LUNAR SUPPLIES.




Initials TS/SAT-TELE/PN/PW



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, leaped exuberantly on the dusty, rocky, surface of the Moon today watched by millions of people on Earth, a quarter of a million miles away. It was exactly at 03.56 and 20 seconds Central European Time that the two US Astronauts ensured their place in history with Armstrong stepping on to the surface of the Moon to be followed a short while later by Aldrin.

Television viewers on Earth could clearly make out the space-suited Astronauts in the black shadow on Lunar Module Eagle, which had landed on the Moon less than seven hours earlier.

After a cautious test of the effect of the Moon's gravity, one sixth of that of the Earth, the Astronauts raised the United States flag and then they leapt and jumped around mankind's newly-won territory in what Neil Armstrong called a "Kangaroo Walk."
Then President Nixon was linked to the Astronauts by telephone for what be called the world's most historic telephone call.

He congratulated them and told them that because of their achievement the heavens had become part of Man's world.

After the telephone call with the President, the Astronauts began photographing and collecting samples of the Moon's surface and putting place equipment which will remain after their return to Earth.

Throughout the Moon walk the Astronauts sent back information of the Moon's soil and terrain.

"It's got a stark beauty all of its own," reported Neil Armstrong.