Photo Courtesy: Google

By K.P. Sander

45 years ago on July 21, 1969, spaceflight Apollo 11 landed on the Moon, with American astronauts Neil Armstrong, and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, being the first humans to ever step foot on the lunar surface.  They spent 21 hours on the Moon, and about two and a half hours outside the spacecraft.  The third member of the mission, Michael Collins, piloted the command spacecraft in lunar orbit, waiting for his fellow astronauts to return for the trip back to earth.

According to Wikipedia, the mission was launched on July 16 from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.  The spacecraft had three components:  the Command Module (CM), with a cabin for the astronauts (the only part coming back to earth); the Service Module, providing support to the CM with propulsion, electrical power, oxygen and water; and the Lunar Module, for the actual landing in the Sea of Tranquility on the Moon.

Armstrong became the very first to step onto the lunar surface on July 21 at approximately 02:56 UTC (Coordinated Universal Time, the primary time standard by which the world regulates clocks and time).  His famous words were transmitted via live television broadcast back to earth for all to hear, “That’s one small step for [a] man; one giant leap for mankind.”  He described the surface as very fine-grained dust, almost like powder.  When Aldrin joined him, he described the view as “magnificent desolation.”  Armstrong and Aldrin collected 47.5 pounds of lunar materials to bring back to earth for study.

The astronauts planted a U.S. flag on the surface, and received the most historic (and farthest) phone call from then-President, Richard Nixon.  The astronauts left behind scientific instruments: an Apollo 1 mission patch, a plaque with two drawings of Earth and an inscription that read, “Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the Moon, July 1969 A.D.  We came in peace for all mankind;” the plaque also had the signatures of all the astronauts and President Nixon.  They also left behind a memorial bag containing a gold replica of an olive branch symbolizing peace, and a silicon message disk containing goodwill statements by U.S. Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon, as well as the leaders from 73 countries around the world.

In the television broadcast from July 23, the night before splashdown, Aldrin said, “When personally reflecting on the events of the past several days, a verse from Psalms comes to mind. ‘When I consider the heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the Moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained; what is man that Thou art mindful of him?”  What those men experienced was beyond profound.

The three astronauts landed back home in the Pacific Ocean on July 24.  The mission fulfilled the goal proposed in 1961 by the late President John F. Kennedy when he spoke before congress stating, “…Before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.”  Mission Accomplished, Mr. President.