"One Small Step for Man"

As Neil Armstrong put his left foot down on the moon, he spoke these words. "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin became the first men to walk on the moon as they stepped out of their lunar
module. Thirty-eight years ago history was made all over the world.

Apollo 11 began its mission on July 16, 1969 with a crew of three:

Neil Armstrong, commander:

Michael Collins, command module pilot:

Edwin (Buzz) Aldrin, lunar module pilot:

The mission was precise:

Columbia was to execute a manned lunar landing and to return home safely. This had never been done before, andNASA had been training and preparing for almost a decade for this mission.

The crew hit lunar orbit 75 hours after leaving Earth. They orbited around the moon 13 times before making the approach toward "The Sea of Tranquility".

July 20, 1969, Buzz and Neil descended into the lunar module they had named Eagle. For the people who actually watched this, they remember the long 20 minutes around the far side of the moon as Houston lost contact with the Eagle. Another small problem was an alarm that sounded. It was nothing serious enough to jeopardize the landing.

At 4:17p.m. Easter Standard time with less than thirty seconds of fuel remaining, the Eagle landed on the Moon. Neil Armstrong took that "small step" that was seen around the world.

Landed and safe-the world watching-the commander is the first one out the door. Fifteen minutes later, Buzz Aldrin stepped out on the moon. They deployed some scientific experiments, collected 20 kilograms (forty-one pounds) of rocks, and took hundreds of photographs of the lunar surface. Armstrong and Aldrin only spent 2 hours and 31 minutes on the moon.

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Credit: Darlene Hauser

Copyright: Darlene Hauser