By Millie Love, Past Writer and Assignments Editor
On the 16th July 1969, people all around the globe tuned in to watch a historic event. For the first time ever, a spacecraft was going to land on the Moon. After Apollo 10, a test mission that circled around the moon, this would be the first time that a person had walked where no one had ever walked before.
The first man to go into space was Yuri Gagarin, a Russian astronaut. Russia’s success started a race; who was going to get to the moon first? So America’s president at the time, John F. Kennedy, addressed congress and said: "First, 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.” And soon America and Russia were in a race to get to the moon. In 1962, John F. Kennedy spoke to the NASA administrator, James Webb and saying: "This is, whether we like it or not, a race. Everything we do in space ought to be tied into getting to the moon ahead of the Russians".
After almost 7 years of preparation the Apollo 10 launched from Kennedy Space center, Florida. The test mission would launch and circle around the Moon before returning to Earth. Soon Apollo 11, was ready for its maiden voyage.
On the 16th July 1969, Apollo 11 finally starts it’s mission to the Moon from Kennedy space center, Florida. It took the spacecraft 4 days to travel 384,400 km to the moon where it planned to separate. The crew: Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins were aboard the Columbia spacecraft which served as living quarters for the crew. Columbia was attached to the Lunar module Eagle. On the 20th July, The spacecraft had reached the moon. Michael Collins stayed on Columbia the command module, which would orbit around the moon, and Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin travelled on the Lunar Eagle to the Moon. At 4:17 EDT, The Eagle landed on the Moon. Armstrong reports back to the base and said: "Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed". All over the world, 600 million people watched in awe as Neil Armstrong stepped out of The Eagle and became the first man ever to walk on the moon,"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind". Buzz Aldrin joined Neil to become the second man to walk on the Moon. Later on that night Armstrong spoke with president Nixon, in what is known as one of the most historic phone calls of all time.
After a long journey home, all of the crew returned to Earth on the 24th July, they landed in the Pacific Ocean, 900 miles away from Hawaii. The crew had collected lots of rock and atmosphere samples from the moon that still help scientists today.
The Apollo 11 mission blazed the path for the future of space exploration. It made many people believe that anything was possible. Maybe it is.
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