Remembering The Moon Landing 50 Years Later

Apollo 11 crew, who made the first crewed landing: Commander Neil Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins, and Lunar Module Pilot Buzz Aldrin

It was 50 years ago today that humans left Earth for the first time and landed on the surface of the Moon.

The Moon landing happened on July 20, 1969, at 20:17 UTC.

Neil Armstrong became the first person to step onto the lunar surface six hours 39 minutes later on July 21 at 02:56 UTC; Buzz Aldrin joined him 19 minutes later.

Apollo 11 was launched by a Saturn V rocket from Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, Florida.

As the descent began, Armstrong and Aldrin found that they were passing landmarks on the surface two or three seconds early, and reported that they were "long"; they would land miles west of their target point. Eagle was traveling too fast.

The astronauts planted the Lunar Flag Assembly containing a flag of the United States on the lunar surface, in clear view of the TV camera. Aldrin remembered, "Of all the jobs I had to do on the Moon the one I wanted to go the smoothest was the flag raising."

That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind. Words said when Armstrong first stepped onto the Moon