July 20, 1969, is forever etched in history as the day man landed on the Moon. NASA’s Apollo 11 was part of 6 manned moon landings to date. The objective of these landings was to gather as much data as possible from close orbits and manned landings but the real agenda at this time for the Americans, was to get to the Moon before the Soviets.
Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Edwin Aldrin formed the American crew that landed the Apollo Lunar Module named ‘Eagle’ on July 20, 1969 at 20:17 UTC (coordinated universal time). Six hours later Armstrong became the first person to step on the Moon at 02:56 UTC. He climbed down the ladder and uttered the famous words, “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”
Aldrin joined him 19 minutes later. They spent around 2 hours outside collecting 21.5 kg of lunar material to bring back to Earth. In all, Armstrong and Aldrin spent 21 hours and 36 minutes on the Moon exploring the surface, collecting samples and taking photographs. They performed all these unbelievable feats at a site they named Tranquility Base. They left behind an America flag, and a patch honouring the fallen Apollo 1 crew, who were killed in a tragic fire in 1967.
Apollo 11 decisively put the U.S. in the top slot in the space race, ahead of the Soviets in terms of spacecraft superiority. It also fulfilled a national goal put forth by President John F Kennedy, in which he stated that the U.S. would put a man on the moon within a decade’s time. This year we celebrate 53 years of this achievement.
Picture Credit : Google
