Fifty-four years ago today, on July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 landed on the moon. The first people to even step on the moon were aboard that spacecraft.
A Race
In the mid-1900s, a space race was going on, mainly between the Soviet Union and the United States. While it looked like the Soviet Union might have the lead when they put the first people in space, the U.S. quickly caught up.
JFK
In 1962 when the space race was going on, President John. F. Kennedy declared that the U.S. would land on the moon by the end of the decade (1970). [1]
Apollo
The Apollo missions had four main goals, including establishing the technology to meet other national interests in space, achieving preeminence in space for the United States, carrying out a program of scientific exploration of the moon, and developing human capability to work in the lunar environment. [2]
Apollo 11
On July 16, 1969, Apollo 11 launched with Commander Neil Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins, and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin. After getting into orbit and orbiting for four days, the lunar module, Eagle, set course to land on the moon. In total, Armstrong and Aldrin spent a little over twenty-one hours on the moon. [3] While landed on the moon, Armstrong spoke the now-famous words,
That’s one small step for a man. One giant leap for mankind.
