It was on July 20, 1969 when the Apollo spacecraft made a touchdown on the moon’s surface.
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Do you remember where you were when Apollo 11 landed on the moon?
With completion of the flight of Apollo 11, the United States of America fulfilled President John F. Kennedy’s 25 May 1961 call to land a man on the Moon and return him safely to the Earth before the decade of the 1960’s was out.
Armstrong’s first step on the moon was historical and most significant in the name of science during the last century. The photos of the landing were broadcast to 600 million individuals on Earth, even if a good number of technical difficulties were experienced. Pat Collins and her children attended Mass at St. Paul’s Cathedral near the Manned Spacecraft Center, and Joan Aldrin and her children attended worship service at Webster Presbyterian Church.
An “insurance” stamp covering Buzz Aldrin for the Apollo 11 moon landing is expected to fetch £5700 ($8900) at auction.
Collins was inside the lunar module taking control, while the two astronauts performed some sets of actions outside. They got lunar soil samples, placed the U.S flag, the Early Apollo Scientific Experiment Package (EASEP), two drawings of the Earth (Western and Eastern Hemisphere), an inscription, and signatures of the astronauts and President Nixon. The inscription read: Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the Moon, July 1969 A.D.
We never know, but 46 years ago, we had taken the “one giant leap for mankind”, as quoted from Lance Armstrong. Columbia splashed-down in the Pacific Ocean at 16:50:35 UTC on Thursday, 24 July 1969.
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After their successful mission, the astronauts were put in quarantine for three weeks for the fear they may have brought back unknown pathogens from the Moon.
