Farewell to Tito Stagno, the journalist from Cagliari who told of the moon landing

Mourning in the world of culture for the death of Tito Stagno, the historic RAI journalist who on the evening of 20 July 1969 had reported the landing on the moon on TV.

Born in Cagliari on January 4, 1930, he was also a special correspondent following the great personalities of the twentieth century and responsible for Domenica Sportiva, from 1976 to 1995.

“He touched! At this moment it touched the lunar ground '', the sentence pronounced by Stagno while, in the headphones, he listened to the words that were said by astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin and the Houston power plant: "Reached Land". Over 25 hours of broadcast, from studio 3 in via Teulada, in connection with Houston where Ruggero Orlando was, to involve the Italians in that moment when man set foot on the moon.

Just in those moments the two journalists had had a quarrel, repeated several times by Stagno: the disagreement was born on the precise moment of the moon landing. From the analyzes carried out later it was ascertained that the Cagliari journalist had announced the event 56 seconds early, Orlando about 10 seconds late.

Stagno had spoken several times about that direct one lasting about 28 hours, retracing some funny moments between coffee and vitamin C to keep himself in strength.

As it was July, the temperatures were high, and it was very hot in the studio. At one point the reporter had taken off his jacket but the production manager had called him to order. Andrea Barbato then had an idea: “Should we keep the jacket? Then let's take off our pants ”. Then the two reporters and the other co-hosts of that day had lowered their trousers, "so there were desks to cover everything".

(Unioneonline / ss)

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