After the EVA, Neil and Buzz doffed the PLSSs and OPSs, stowed the rock boxes, jettisoned equipment they would no longer need, had something to eat and, starting about three hours fifteen minutes after the end of the EVA, tried to get some rest. They wore their helmets and IVA gloves, but did not have the suits pressurized.



The following is the wake-up call from CapCom Ron Evans:

121:40:36 Evans: Tranquility Base, Tranquility Base, Houston. Over. 121:40:45 Armstrong: Good morning, Houston. Tranquility Base. Over.

121:40:49 Evans: Roger. Loud and clear. And how is the resting standing up there? Did you get a chance to curl up on the engine can? 121:41:02 Aldrin: Roger. Neil has rigged himself a really good hammock with a waist tether, and he's been lying on the ascent engine cover, and I curled up on the floor (at the front of the cabin). Over.

After they got home to Earth, Neil elaborated on his sleeping arrangements during the Crew Technical Debriefing (p 10-79):

"I didn't mind sleeping on the ascent-engine cover. I didn't find it that bad. I made a hammock out of a waist tether - which I attached to some of the structure handholds - to hold my feet up in the air and in the middle of the cockpit. This kept my feet up about level with - of a little higher - than my torso."

Next, during a mission review done for the Apollo Lunar Surface Journal done in 1991, we had the following discussion:

[Armstrong - "I think it was my position (that) was bothered by the noise more than yours, because you were on the floor - right? - and I was on the engine cover with a loop that'd I rigged up of some kind to hold my legs, hanging from something up there. And my head was back to the rear of the cabin and there was a glycol pump or a water pump or something very close to where my head was. But the temperature control was probably the most troublesome."]



[I (E.J.) speculated that the back of the cabin was small enough that Neil's legs would have hung over the front, then we found Buzz's statement at 121:41:02 indicating that Neil had used one of the waist tethers to keep his legs suspended.]



[Armstrong - "Yeah, I suspended them. I rigged up a loop to hold my legs. And the other thing was (that) the Earth was coming through the AOT (Alignment Optical Telescope). (Chuckling) We had blinds over the windows and so on, but the Earth was coming through the AOT. We were all settled down and we realized that we still had a light source coming from something. We rigged up something to hang something over the top of the AOT to cut that out."]

On page 239 in his 1973 book Return to Earth, Buzz writes:

"We had a seven-hour rest period before beginning the final lift-off procedures and settled down for our fitful rest. I eased myself onto the small amount of available floor space while Neil leaned against the rear of the cabin and placed his feet in a small strap. We didn't sleep much at all. Among other things we were elated-and also cold. Neil looked quite comfortable, found that his line of vision was directly into the telescope pointed at the Earth, whose brightness made it difficult to sleep."

And, finally, on page 532 in James Hansen's authorized Armstrong biography, First Man, we have from Neil:

"The only other place to rest was the engine cover, which was a circular table some two and a half feet in diameter. To support my legs we configured a sling from one of our waist tethers. We attached that to a pipe structure that was hanging down. It was a good structure to hang a sling from, so I stuck my legs in there and kept the center part of my body on the engine cover. That kept my legs suspended. Behind the cover there was a flat shelf where I could sort of rest my head. It was a jerry-rigged operation and not very comfortable."

The available evidence is somewhat contradictory. One way around the difficulty is to assume that Neil started by sitting on the engine cover with his head against the back wall of the cabin but, because he was bothered by light from Earth coming through the AOT, he devised a way to support his legs while he lay with his back on the engine cover. The following scenario seems consistent with most of the available evidence, especially the presence of yellow paint on the inside of the large hook and the fact that the opening of the small hook is too small to fit around the tubing that comprises the guard. However, it may not represent what Neil actually did. We will never know.

