", READ MORE: Apollo 11 Moon Landing Timeline: From Liftoff to Splashdown. 1 0 obj<> endobj 2 0 obj<>/Font<>/ProcSet[/PDF/Text]/ExtGState<>>> endobj 3 0 obj<>stream The event was the culmination of a technological race started by President John F. Kennedy in 1963 with the goal of beating read more.

Two hours later, the Eagle began its descent to the lunar surface, and at 4:17 p.m. the craft touched down on the southwestern edge of the Sea of Tranquility. Thats one small step for man, read more, A half-century ago, NASA was preparing feverishly for a moon landing in a race against the former Soviet Union. Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. The Apollo program was a costly and labor-intensive endeavor, involving an estimated 400,000 engineers, technicians and scientists, and costing $24 billion (close to $100 billion in today's dollars). By 1:11 a.m. on July 21, both astronauts were back in the lunar module and the hatch was closed. WATCH: Moon Landing: The Lost Tapes on HISTORY Vault, The American effort to send astronauts to the moon had its origins in an appeal President Kennedy made to a special joint session of Congress on May 25, 1961: "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.". The two men slept that night on the surface of the moon, and at 1:54 p.m. the Eagle began its ascent back to the command module. Just seven years before, a young president had challenged the nation to land a man on the moonnot because it was easy, as John F. Kennedy said in 1962, but because it was hard. By July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong backed down a ladder and onto the read more, On July 20, 1969, American astronaut Neil Armstrong stepped off the lunar landing module Eagle, and became the first human to walk on the surface of the moon. The expense was justified by Kennedy's 1961 mandate to beat the Soviets to the moon, and after the feat was accomplished, ongoing missions lost their viability. Apollo 13 had to abort its lunar landing due to technical difficulties. After traveling 240,000 miles in 76 hours, Apollo 11 entered into a lunar orbit on July 19. At 10:56 p.m., as Armstrong stepped off the ladder and planted his foot on the moons powdery surface, he spoke his famous quote, which he later contended was slightly garbled by his microphone and meant to be "that's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind. In 1966, after five years of work by an international team of scientists and engineers, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) conducted the first unmanned Apollo mission, testing the structural integrity of the proposed launch vehicle and spacecraft combination. READ MORE:How Many Times Has the U.S. Landed on the Moon? How Many Times Has the U.S. Landed on the Moon. JFK's Pledge Leads to Start of Apollo Program. Nixon considered it the "most historic phone call ever made from the White House.". Armstrong immediately radioed to Mission Control in Houston, Texas, a now-famous message: "The Eagle has landed.". The next day, at 1:46 p.m., the lunar module Eagle, manned by Armstrong and Aldrin, separated from the command module, where Collins remained. At 5:35 p.m., Armstrong and Aldrin successfully docked and rejoined Collins, and at 12:56 a.m. on July 22 Apollo 11 began its journey home, safely splashing down in the Pacific Ocean at 12:50 p.m. on July 24. HWr)?\R*C`H5 Z/*O %&OxSv4w +7 ;p$0,~/sz|pCRpeyEw_>O$xVi>][uzsNK\0YU[q]\u=i;f+:8:7bP[:;J==p18An_=*yD8cc\i\bQNU;5?bOtg#iigAf=l*JVZ+IX_{!f?bl7gf:J)NF/CY #K\qXd2g|K]#7GdGFpSuUdstu~B@Fk@Xa54AAtRTJ hpK9}tW DG$zaI1J2J k_[7]8)hS((m?"4uxor,2z\. At the time, the United States was still trailing the Soviet Union in space developments, and Cold War-era America welcomed Kennedy's bold proposal. Beginning in the late 1950s, space read more, The moment is etched in the collective memory of an entire generationthe blurry black-and-white image of Neil Armstrong descending the stairs of the Apollo 11 lunar module on July 20, 1969 to become the first human being to step foot on the moon. The Eagle read more, On May 25, 1961, the new American president, John F. Kennedy, stood in front of a joint session of Congress and called on the country to launch a bold initiative: This nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and read more, More than a million people gathered along Floridas Space Coast to watch the Apollo 11 lift off from Launchpad 39A on the sunny afternoon of July 16, 1969. The last men to walk on the moon, astronauts Eugene Cernan (1934-2017) and Harrison Schmitt (1935-) of the Apollo 17 mission, left the lunar surface on December 14, 1972. %PDF-1.5 % But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Despite the setback, NASA and its thousands of employees forged ahead, and in October 1968, Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo mission, orbited Earth and successfully tested many of the sophisticated systems needed to conduct a moon journey and landing. From the moment astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin set foot on the lunar surface on July 21, 1969, some believed it was all an read more, As the dust settled on the moons Sea of Tranquility after the landing engine of the Apollo 11 Lunar Module shut down, Commander Neil Armstrongs steely voice crackled over the radio at Mission Control, a quarter of a million miles away: "Houston, Tranquility Base here. {lbL'Yu> xuMT5VWjB@i3j4.Fg{* uxa7ns 5LtF;3y=NoXq*bt4l9% y7Z-n'FmjfhEoJt= !P;~ G:=Vco7i';&>MLUdNlMT0%"mo\)x mfSPN(Wsir&V+RJ`,W4n=MB=|fs\KR_&UO\^)>dF4HhL:F3-Y )ZH: y)"hEc2x3)-_.4G'k@iZ=>;`r_$|5.+ZbM9BTK^N3qW[gUj6 GI 6]dIz{MbvDu5o?qRPp&! dqo] ~[:`>8iAg95_ofj#\We+w1 WjSt9aEfNZ} 2022 A&E Television Networks, LLC. Among the items left on the surface of the moon was a plaque that read: "Here men from the planet Earth first set foot on the moonJuly 1969 A.D.We came in peace for all mankind.". Known as the Cold War, this battle pitted the worlds two great powersthe democratic, capitalist United States and the communist Soviet Unionagainst each other. In December of the same year, Apollo 8 took three astronauts to the far side of the moon and back, and in March 1969 Apollo 9 tested the lunar module for the first time while in Earth orbit. .t. https://www.history.com/topics/space-exploration/moon-landing-1969. READ MORE:When Apollo 10 Nearly Crashed Into the Moon. At 10:39 p.m., five hours ahead of the original schedule, Armstrong opened the hatch of the lunar module. There would be five more successful lunar landing missions, and one unplanned lunar swing-by. About six-and-a-half hours later, Armstrong became the first person to walk on the moon. All Rights Reserved. Apollo 17, the final manned moon mission, took place in 1972. A4nV(.o,Pxl^>`#NIfCbt#P>6yom8+Bw~a Z7Mv690NRIQ .sN^X PC<3fPCIB2Qmkc^*"oxOUa After World War II drew to a close in the mid-20th century, a new conflict began. Aldrin joined him on the moon's surface 19 minutes later, and together they took photographs of the terrain, planted a U.S. flag, ran a few simple scientific tests and spoke with President Richard Nixon (1913-94) via Houston. How Landing on the Moon Cost Dozens of Lives, When Apollo 10 Nearly Crashed Into the Moon, Apollo 11 Moon Landing Timeline: From Liftoff to Splashdown. The non-stop campaign of testing and launches was also a race against timespecifically to honor slain president John F. Kennedys 1961 pledge for the country to land a read more, It was a feat for the ages. That May, the three astronauts of Apollo 10 took the first complete Apollo spacecraft around the moon in a dry run for the scheduled July landing mission. Armstrong, a 38-year-old civilian research pilot, was the commander of the mission. Three astronauts were killed in the fire. On July 20, 1969, American astronauts Neil Armstrong (1930-2012) and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin (1930-) became the first humans ever to land on the moon. The Apollo 11 mission occurred eight years after President John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) announced a national goal of landing a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s. As he took his first step, Armstrong famously said, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." As he made his way down the module's ladder, a television camera attached to the craft recorded his progress and beamed the signal back to Earth, where hundreds of millions watched in great anticipation. "use strict";(function(){var insertion=document.getElementById("citation-access-date");var date=new Date().toLocaleDateString(undefined,{month:"long",day:"numeric",year:"numeric"});insertion.parentElement.replaceChild(document.createTextNode(date),insertion)})(); FACT CHECK: We strive for accuracy and fairness. READ MORE: How Landing on the Moon Cost Dozens of Lives, President Richard Nixon spoke with Armstrong and Aldrin via a telephone radio transmission shortly after they planted the American flag on the lunar surface.

How Many Times Did the US Land on the Moon? At 9:32 a.m. EDT on July 16, with the world watching, Apollo 11 took off from Kennedy Space Center with astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins (1930-) aboard. #RdPleUU( uO7xFDI' Nearly 240,000 miles from Earth, Armstrong spoke these words to more than a billion people listening at home: "That's read more, Every epic moment in modern history inevitably spawns a tangled web of conspiracy theories, and the Apollo moon landings are no exception. Then, on January 27, 1967, tragedy struck at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, when a fire broke out during a manned launch-pad test of the Apollo spacecraft and Saturn rocket.