On 21st July 1969 Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the Moon – as he put his left foot down he declared: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
He had earlier reported the Eagle lunar module‘s safe landing with the words: “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.” Neil Armstrong stepped onto the Moon‘s surface in the Sea of Tranquility at 0256 GMT nearly 20 minutes after first opening the hatch on the Eagle. He described the surface as being like powdered charcoal and the landing had caused a crater about a foot deep. Some 600 million people watched grainy TV images as Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin climbed out of the Eagle to become the first human beings to set foot on the Moon. Read more […]
On 24th July 1969 Apollo 11 safely returned to Earth and fulfilled the dream of President John F Kennedy in 1961 when he said: “… I believe this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth.”
