(NASA)
“On July 20, 1969, the human race accomplished its single greatest technological achievement of all time when a human first set foot on another celestial body.
“Six hours after landing at 4:17 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (with less than 30 seconds of fuel remaining), Neil A. Armstrong took the “Small Step†into our greater future when he stepped off the Lunar Module, named “Eagle,†onto the surface of the Moon, from which he could look up and see Earth in the heavens as no one had done before him.
“He was shortly joined by “Buzz†Aldrin, and the two astronauts spent 21 hours on the lunar surface and returned 46 pounds of lunar rocks. After their historic walks on the Moon, they successfully docked with the Command Module “Columbia,†in which Michael Collins was patiently orbiting the cold but no longer lifeless Moon.”
(Text from the NASA History Office)
Click here to visit the Apollo 11 website.
2 Comments
I was 9 when we landed on the moon. I’ll always remember my mom telling us to sit down and watch TV whenever there was anything related to space flight on because it was “history being made.”
Thank you, Mom!
I was a total space geek. Before the moon landing, there was concern about how far into the lunar dust the spacecraft would sink (it was still a concern for Apollo 11 – if you listen to the audio, just before Neil Armstrong stepped off the LEM, he reported that the craft had only sunk into the dust about “one or two inches”).
Months before, I had sent NASA an idea (complete with a diagram) that suggested they drop a rock out of an orbiting craft and see if it sinks.
For some reason, they didn’t take my recommendation, but I got some nice photos in response that adorned my walls for years.