Apollo 11
On July 20, 1969 the Apollo 11 spacecraft landed on the moon, and soon after, Neil Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the moon, when he stepped off the Lunar Module Eagle onto the moon's surface, saying: "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind."[1]
The crew of Apollo 11 consisted of 3 astronauts: Commander Neil Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin Jr., and Michael Collins. Buzz Aldrin was second on the moon, while Astronaut Collins orbited the moon in the Apollo Command Module. The two astronauts initiated a live videotaping to be seen on earth and placed a United States flag on the surface, and a commemorative plaque which read: "Here men from the planet earth first set foot on the moon July 1969, A.D. We came in peace for all mankind." They then spent time gathering samples of rocks and soil to bring back to Earth.
The spacecraft was launched on July 16, 1969, by NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the United States Federal Government agency responsible for aviation and space flight. The liftoff was from Kennedy Space Center, and lunar orbit was entered on July 19, 1969.
President John F. Kennedy had said that he was determined to send a man to the Moon before the end of the decade. However, this was not accomplished during his term in office; by the time the lunar landing was made, Richard Nixon was in office.
The mission of Apollo 11 was completed when the astronauts returned safely to Earth on July 24, 1969.
References
http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/apollo11/
- ↑ He intended to say "one step for a man." Whether he actually said the word "a" is disputed. See One Small Misstep, Snopes urban legend site. A video clip and sound recording are available at NASA. At the time, many listeners perceived his words as "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." Major newspapers and wire services reported it without the "a;" the New York Times did so as their July 21, 1969 "Quotation of the Day" (p. 35, also in the seventh sentence of their front-page story). Various small noises, short pauses, or transmission artifacts have sometimes been interpreted as the missing word, obscured by technical problems. In September 2006 an audio analyst claimed to have found the missing "a" but this, too is disputed.
See also: Project Apollo, Apollo 13
