User blog:ARTaylor/50 Years of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing

Today is the fiftieth anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. The event was the first of six manned missions to our moon, and the first time a human being stepped onto an object other than Earth.

The Apollo 11 mission lifted off from Florida on July 16th, 1969 crewed by Commander Neil Armstrong, command module pilot Michael Collins, and lunar module pilot Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin Jr. It flew for three days until it ended the moon's orbit. Armstrong and Alrdin entered the lunar module Eagle heading for the surface while Collins remained behind in the service module. The Eagle landed at 20:17 UTC and on July 21st at 02:56 Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon uttering the famous phrase "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind." Alrdin followed soon after. The two spent over two hours outside the module on the surface performing various experiments and collecting samples to return to Earth for study. They spent a total of twenty-one and a half hours on the surface before returning to orbit. The three astronauts eventually splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on July 24th, spending just eight days outside Earth's atmosphere.

The event was broadcast to over six-hundred million people on Earth. This accounted for roughly twenty percent of the world's population. The event was seen as the end of the Space Race proving United States dominance over the Soviet Union, who had achieved numerous earlier accomplishments like putting a man in space first. As of yet, the United States is the only nation to have any personnel on the lunar surface, though several nations have landed unmanned objects. The three astronauts were greatly honored with medals of the President, state dinners with top officials from across the world, and massive media coverage. The event has been hailed as one of the greatest human achievements ever.