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One small step for a man

Apollo 11's journey to the moon

© by NASA / Vox / YouTube

Source | NASA / Vox / YouTube | 07 March 2024 1 minute
“That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.” – Today everyone knows the meaning of this sentence. The American astronaut Neil Armstrong was the first man to set foot on the moon with these words on 20 July 1969 during the flight of Apollo 11. It was a space mission within the Apollo program of the US space agency NASA. The mission was successful and fulfilled the task given to the nation by US President John F. Kennedy in 1961 to bring a man to the moon and safely back to Earth before the end of the decade. The three astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin and Michael Collins launched a Saturn V rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on 16 July 1969 and reached moon orbit on 19 July. While Collins remained behind in the command module of the “Columbia” spacecraft, Armstrong and Aldrin landed the lunar module “Eagle” the next day. A few hours later, Armstrong was the first human to enter the moon, followed shortly afterwards by Aldrin. After a nearly 22-hour stay, the Lunar Module took off again from the lunar surface and returned to the mother ship. After returning to Earth, Columbia landed in the Pacific on 24 July. During the television broadcast of the first moon landing, around 600 million people worldwide followed the event. The fascinating video animation by Coleman Lowndes and Vox shows the individual steps of this incredible journey to the moon. For more please check out www.vox.com