Volume 16 , Issue 24

20 July 1969 - The Moon landing (Apollo 11)

How many of you can remember back 45 years, 20 July 1969, NASA's Apollo 11, and the Eagle Lander touching down on the lunar surface? Where were you when it happened? Were you one of the 5 million persons gathered around television sets, radios listening and waiting for news of the lunar landing?



I remember enrolled a summer art class at Northwestern State College, in Alva, Oklahoma. I was also preparing for my wedding to David, scheduled ten days later, 30 July 1969. Someone in my art class had even painted an acrylic painting of the Eagle Lunar landing vehicle landing on the moon. What's your story?

Commander Armstrong was not the only one up there that day. The Apollo 11 astronauts were Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, that sit atop another Saturn V at launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center on the morning of July 16, 1969. Three days later the crew was in lunar orbit, when Armstrong and Aldrin climbed into the lunar module Eagle, beginning the descent to the lunar service, while Collins orbited the command module Columbia.



Armstrong and Aldrin set the Eagle down in the Sea of Tranquility, with Armstrong improvising, manually piloting the ship past an area littered with boulders. The lunar module landed at 4;18 p.m. EDT, only 30 seconds of fuel remained. Armstrong radios, Houston Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.

It was Apollo 11 Commander Neil Armstrong that set foot on the Moon, July 20th, 10:56p.m. EDT, in 1969 and said, "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." Aldrin soon following to explore the surface of the moon for two and a half hours, collecting samples and taking photographs.

Aldrin and Armstrong leave behind an American flag, a patch honoring the fallen Apollo 1 crew, and a plaque on one of Eagle's legs. It read, "Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the moon. July 1969 A.D. We came in peace for all mankind."

Armstrong and Aldrin blast off and dock with Collins in Columbia. The crew splashes down off Hawaii on July 24, 1969.

It was President Kennedy's dream and challenge that was carried off that day, with men landing on the moon from earth and returning safely home.   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

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