Apollo 11 Moon Landing Turns 40 with Video
Apollo 11 Moon Landing Turns 40 – Forty years ago today. On July 16, 1969: The world watched in anticipation as three men were hurtled skyward in a rocket bound for the moon and July 20, Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong became the first human beings to set foot on the moon.
The Mission: The Apollo 11 mission was the first manned mission to land on the Moon. It was the fifth human spaceflight of Project Apollo and the third human voyage to the Moon or Moon orbit. Launched on July 16, 1969, it carried Mission Commander Neil Alden Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins, and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin Eugene ‘Buzz’ Aldrin, Jr. On July 20, Armstrong and Aldrin became the first humans to land on the Moon, while Collins orbited above.
The mission fulfilled President John F. Kennedy’s goal of reaching the moon by the end of the 1960s, which he had expressed during a speech given before a joint session of Congress on May 25, 1961: “I believe that 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 the Earth.” (Collect from wikipedia)
According to CNN, Apollo 11 lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on July 16, 1969. Four days later, the first two humans walked on the lunar surface; 10 more Americans followed by the end of 1972.
In the 40 years since the Apollo program first took humans to the moon, the astronauts’ lives have taken diverse paths.
Almost all had been military test pilots before joining NASA; in later life, they found themselves ministers, politicians and conspiracy buffs. Some struggled with common issues: Many of their marriages fell apart and alcoholism affected at least one.
In possibly the most extreme case of post-Apollo readjustment, Buzz Aldrin — the second human being to set foot on the moon — became a car salesman in Texas.
Not very successfully, “the 79-year old Aldrin quickly acknowledges.
21 July 2009
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