The keypad
Part one of the fix was keyed in minutes before the engine lit, and the rest with the engine already firing. Not every digit had come back right first time.
Transcript
- Theo
Verb. Noun. Enter. (transl: he reads three key labels off the keypad, VERB, NOUN and ENTER. Keep them as the labels, as in the glossary.)
- Marion
Every word you've been hearing. (transl: the words on the radio recordings, VERB, NOUN, ENTER and the numbers.) This is where it went. (transl: this keypad is where it was keyed in.)
- Theo
How long did they have? (transl: how much time the crew had before the descent.)
- Marion
Part one went in four minutes before the engine lit. (transl: "part one" of the fix. "Went in" means was keyed in. "The engine lit" means the descent engine started, for the landing.) Shepard called it out as it went in. (transl: he read each entry aloud as it was keyed in. "Called it out", not "called it off".)
- Theo
Same line as the page. (transl: the line Shepard just called out is the one written in the margin of the page at the previous stop. "Line" is the same word as before.)
- Marion
Same line. (transl: she repeats his words.)
I had a copy of that list that night. When he said one-oh-one, I ticked it. (transl: "he" is Mitchell, and "one-oh-one" is his slip from the previous stop, in the same spoken form. "Ticked it" means she marked it on her copy as correct.) Haise caught it. I didn't. (transl: the same verb for catching a mistake as at the previous stop. Four short, plain sentences; no self-pity.) - Theo
You never said. (transl: "you never told anyone". Quiet and surprised, not reproachful.)
- Marion
It got caught. (transl: "it" is the slip; the same verb for catching a mistake.) That's what the read-back is for. (transl: she draws the lesson plainly, without moralising.)
The rest went in with the engine already firing. (transl: the rest of the fix was keyed in after the descent engine had started.) - Theo
And the switch? (transl: whether the faulty ABORT switch caused trouble again.)
- Marion
Nobody on the radio mentioned it again. The landing radar had a fault of its own, though. (transl: the landing radar measures height and speed above the surface.) Wrong scale. (transl: it had switched to the wrong range setting, so it could not measure from high up. Keep it a two-word fragment if the language allows.) Nothing to do with the switch. (transl: keep this explicit: the radar fault was not caused by the switch or the fix.)
- Theo
Let me guess. They hit it. (transl: a joke recalling his "They fixed it by hitting it" at the first stop; use the same verb for hitting.)
- Marion
Cycled a breaker. (transl: switched a circuit breaker off and on again, a standard reset.) Tapping panels, cycling breakers. (transl: "tapping" is the same verb as the tapped panel at the first stop.) Very sophisticated. (transl: dry irony.) Then this. (transl: she points Theo to the next recording.)
- Theo
They still sound bored. (transl: recalls his "He sounds bored" at the first stop; use the same word for "bored".)
- Marion
That's what right sounds like. (transl: "right" means correct, the same plain word as in the first stop's question, "Did every number get up there right?". This answers it. Quiet and short.)
This guide was created by humans with the help of AI. Learn more →
Fact and fiction
This story mixes fiction with fact. Marion and Theo are invented, and so is their visit. They stand in for the many people who followed that night from the edges, listening rather than deciding. Neither of them takes credit for anything a real person did.
Everything else is held to the record. Every word on the radio was really said, taken from NASA's air-to-ground recordings. The fault, the fix and the times come from NASA's transcripts and the Apollo 14 Mission Report. Where the sources disagree or say nothing, we have left it out.