Today in History: Armstrong takes one small step for man
The day of the moon landing in 1969 saw the uttering of two famous lines in American history, both from the mouth of the legendary Neil Armstrong.
The Apollo 11 mission launched four days prior to its landing, from the Kennedy Space Center at 9.32am (Eastern Daylight Time [EDT]), with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin aboard the rocket that would make history.
Four days and 386 242,56km later, at 4.18pm EDT on 20 July, the Apollo 11 craft touched down on the southwestern edge of the Sea of Tranquility. Armstrong immediately radioed his first famous message to Mission Control in Houston, Texas: “The Eagle has landed.”
At 10.39pm EDT, five hours ahead of the original schedule, Armstrong opened the hatch of the lunar module. As he made his way down the lunar module’s ladder, a television camera attached to the craft recorded his progress and beamed the signal back to Earth, where hundreds of millions watched in great anticipation. At 10.56pm, Armstrong spoke his famous quote, which he later contended was slightly garbled by his microphone and was meant to be “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”
He then planted his left foot on the grey, powdery surface, took a cautious step forward, and humanity had walked on the moon. Buzz Aldrin joined him on the moon’s surface at 11.11pm, and together they took photographs of the terrain, planted a USA flag, ran a few simple scientific tests, and spoke with President Richard M Nixon via Houston.
By 1.11am on July 21, both astronauts were back in the lunar module and the hatch was closed. The two men slept that night on the surface of the moon, and at 1.54 pm, the Eagle began its ascent back to the command module. Among the items left on the surface of the moon was a plaque that read: “Here men from the planet Earth first set foot on the moon –July 1969 AD –We came in peace for all mankind.”
Relive the moon landing here:
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