Armstrong Moon Landing

5 Facts About the Moon Landing

1. Neil Armstrong gets the glory as the first person to walk on the moon, with Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin Jr. not far behind. But don’t forget about the third crewmember. Michael Collins remained behind in the command module while his subsequently more famous counterparts kicked up moon dust. No hard feelings. “I know that I would be a liar or a fool if I said that I have the best of the three Apollo 11 seats, but I can say with truth and equanimity that I am perfectly satisfied with the one I have,” Collins once said.

2. Apollo 11 completed an eight-day, 953,054-mile journey to the moon and back. That’s equivalent to traveling around the Equator about 38 times.

3. The journey to the moon took about four days. Apollo 11 blasted off at 9:32 a.m. July 16, 1969, from Kennedy Space Station. It entered the lunar orbit on July 19, and July 20 was the big show. At 1:46 p.m. that day, Armstrong and Aldrin began their descent in the Eagle lunar module. They landed on the moon at 4:18 p.m. at the Sea of Tranquility, and Armstrong opened the hatch at 10:39 p.m.

4. Apollo 11’s moon landing gave us many things: bragging rights over the Russians, the catchphrase “the Eagle has landed” and decades of conspiracy theories about hoaxes and Hollywood soundstages. But most of all, it gave us that enduring line, “It’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Which makes no sense, as man and mankind are pretty much the same thing as Armstrong phrased it. Armstrong later said his microphone failed to pick up the crucial “a,” as in, “It’s one small step for  A  man…” Much better phrasing.

5. Moonwalkers—of the NASA variety, not Michael Jackson dancers—are a very exclusive club. Just 12 NASA astronauts have walked on the moon. The last were part of the Apollo 17 crew, who touched down on the lunar surface in December 1972. Eugene Cernan is officially the last person to walk on the moon.

ABC-CLIO Blog: Today in History: Neil Armstrong Walks on Moon

Armstrong was born on August 5, 1930 in Wapakoneta, Ohio. He spent his childhood there before attending college at Purdue University in Indiana, where he earned a degree in aerospace engineering. Immediately after graduating, Armstrong enlisted as a navy fighter pilot and served during the Korean War. On returning to civilian life in 1952, he became a test pilot. Armstrong's life was soon redirected by the entry of the United States into a space race with its cold war rival, the Soviet Union. In 1957, the Soviets successfully launched the first man-made satellite, Sputnik, into orbit. Americans became fearful of Soviet superiority in space, and determined not to give the Soviets the upper hand in any arena, the United States pursued its space program in earnest. The Russians became the first to launch a person into space early in 1961. In May of the same year, Alan Shepard became the first American man in space, and shortly after his flight, President John F. Kennedy challenged the United States to put a man on the moon before the end of the decade. Armstrong was selected to be an astronaut in 1962 with other talented test pilots. In 1966, he made his first space flight aboard Gemini 8. During that flight, he and fellow astronaut David Scott carried out the first docking maneuvers between two spacecrafts. Armstrong was among the astronauts chosen for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) next series of space missions, Apollo, which were intended to reach the moon. The ambitious program began in tragedy. On January 27, 1967, the Apollo 1 astronauts—Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee—were killed by a fire that broke out in their space capsule during a test launch. Only two years after the disaster, NASA met Kennedy's challenge to put a man on the moon with Apollo 11. The moon landing also put the United States firmly ahead of the Soviets in the space race. Armstrong, the mission's commander, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins landed their lunar module on the moon on July 20, 1969. While the world watched on television, Armstrong, followed by Aldrin, descended from the craft to walk on the moon. As Armstrong made his descent he uttered the now famous phrase: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." The two men spent the next two hours exploring the lava plains of the Sea of Tranquility and collecting samples of lunar dust.

The First Moon Landing

Moon Landing

United States Senate Catalogue of Fine Art

Neil Armstrong, young flyer

Moon Landing