What was the first mission to land on the moon

Left:  Lunar Module Pilot Buzz Aldrin. Commander Neil Armstrong, who took the photo, and the Lunar Module Eagle are visible as reflections in Aldrin’s helmet visor. Right:  Aldrin’s bootprint in the lunar regolith.

Apollo 11 was launched on July 16, 1969, at 8:32 AM Central Daylight Time (CDT) with the goal of performing the first human landing on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins, and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin entered lunar orbit on the afternoon of July 19. The following day, Armstrong and Aldrin begin their descent to the lunar surface in the Lunar Module, Eagle. The planned landing site in the Sea of Tranquility was selected as a flat, safe location and had been surveyed by Apollo 10 at an elevation of 10 miles above the Moon. However, a navigation error earlier in the mission caused Eagle to be about 7 kilometers beyond the planned landing location.

During the 12.6-minute-long powered descent, there were a total of five unexpected computer alarms. These alarms all indicated that Eagle’s computer system was overloaded, but in each case, Mission Control concluded that it was safe to continue the landing. The last of these alarms occurred less than three minutes before landing, when the crew was less than 500 meters above the surface. Because of the navigation error, the computer was guiding the spacecraft towards an unsafe touchdown point in the rugged, boulder-filled ejecta field surrounding West Crater. Armstrong took manual control and flew to a safe landing spot beyond the crater. At 3:17 PM CDT, he announced their safe landing, “Houston, Tranquility Base. The Eagle has landed.” At the time of landing, Mission Control thought that the spacecraft had just 17 seconds of fuel left in the descent stage. However, post mission analysis showed that sloshing in the fuel tank during Armstrong’s search for a safe landing site caused the fuel gauge to give an inaccurate reading. Eagle actually had about 45 seconds of fuel left when it touched down.

After a checkout of Eagle’s systems, Armstrong and Aldrin prepared for their moonwalk. At 9:56 PM CDT, Armstrong set foot on the lunar surface, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Aldrin followed a short while later. The duration of this first ever moonwalk was limited to just 2 hours and 31 minutes and the crew remained within 60 meters of Eagle. Armstrong and Aldrin collected 21.6 kilograms of samples and deployed a seismometer to measure moonquakes, a laser retroreflector to enable precise measurements of the distance between Earth and the Moon, and a device to collect a sample of the solar wind. They also performed ceremonial duties, including setting up a United States flag, unveiling a commemorative plaque on the lunar module, and having a brief conversation with President Richard Nixon.

During the moon landing, Collins remained in lunar orbit in the command module, Columbia. After just 21.6 hours on the Moon, Eagle’s ascent stage returned to lunar orbit and rejoined Columbia. Altogether, Apollo 11 spent 2.5 days in lunar orbit, circling the Moon 31 times. The crew returned safely to Earth on July 24, landing in the Pacific Ocean southwest of Hawaii, after a flight of 8 days and 3 hours. Although scientists considered it unlikely that the Moon had life on it, the crew was kept in a biological quarantine for 21 days.

Post-mission analysis showed that the Apollo 11 samples consisted of two primary rock types. Basalt is formed by the solidification of molten magma. The Apollo 11 basalts formed 3.6 to 3.9 billion years ago and are unusually rich in the element titanium. Breccias are composed of fragments of other rocks. On the Moon, breccias formed from rocks that are broken up by impacting objects. Analysis of the lunar samples also confirmed that they were indeed lifeless and showed no evidence of water.

Official NASA Apollo 11 Mission Description
Apollo 11 Lunar Surface Journal EVA Transcripts
Apollo 11 Lunar Samples

On July 20, 1969, millions of people gathered around their televisions to watch two U.S. astronauts do something no one had ever done before. Wearing bulky space suits and backpacks of oxygen to breathe, Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin became the first human beings to walk on the moon.

After the two stepped onto the lunar surface, Armstrong proclaimed these famous words: “That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind."

SPACE RACE

Humans were only able to make that small step after several other space firsts happened. In 1957 the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, was launched into space by Russia. The United States launched several satellites of their own afterward. Both countries hoped to be the first to send a human into space.

It wasn’t until 1961 that a person went to space: On April 12, Russia’s Yuri Gagarin became the first. Less than a month later the United States’ Alan Shepard became the first American in space. Following these milestones, President John F. Kennedy issued a challenge to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to put a human on the moon in 10 years or less.

NASA went to work. On July 16, 1969, the spacecraft Apollo 11 prepared to launch a crew of three astronauts into space … and the history books.

MOON WALK

NASA officials selected Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins as the astronauts who would make the historic trip from Earth on Apollo 11. Just four days after launching from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the spacecraft neared the moon’s surface.

Before touching down, the three men split up. Collins boarded Apollo 11’s command module, the Columbia, where he would remain in orbit around the moon. Armstrong and Aldrin boarded Apollo 11’s lunar module, the Eagle, and began to descend to the moon’s surface.

The Eagle made a risky landing in a shallow moon crater named the Sea of Tranquility. (Most people watching the landing on TV didn’t know that the Eagle had only 20 seconds of landing fuel left at this point.) Armstrong and Aldrin looked out the windows of the module at the lifeless and barren lunar landscape.

After six and a half hours pass, the pair inside the Eagle prepared to exit the module. As mission commander, Armstrong stepped out first … and became the first person on the moon.

Twenty minutes later, Aldrin climbed down the ladder and joined his partner. After reading a plaque that said they “came in peace for all mankind,” the two planted the United States’ flag on the surface. President Richard Nixon called to congratulate the astronauts.

Armstrong and Aldrin went back to work collecting samples of moon rocks and dust. After over two hours, the astronauts brought 47 pounds back onto the lunar module and prepared to rejoin Collins. It was time to go home.

DOWN TO EARTH

The Apollo 11 crew returned to Earth on July 24, 1969. Over the next several years, 10 astronauts would follow in Armstrong and Aldrin’s footsteps. The last mission to the moon was in 1972.

Though humans haven’t returned to the moon since, they have continued to explore space. They even built the International Space Station (ISS), a space research station, where they can conduct experiments and study space up close.

Apollo 11- The First Moon Walk

Discover the facts and see the NASA footage from the first ever walk on the moon. Find out what it took and the dangers astronauts Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin faced.

Today NASA is working on sending humans to another planet: Mars. Thanks to the Apollo 11 moon landing, NASA is hopeful about its chances. The act of putting three people on the moon—and then safely bringing them back home—proved that successful human exploration in space is possible.

Text adapted from Ladders Earth Science: Exploring Above and Beyond by Stephanie Harvey and Space Encyclopedia: A Tour of Our Solar System and Beyond by David A. Aguilar and Patricia Daniels

PUBLISHED July 17, 2020

Moon Buggy

Apollo 17 mission Commander Eugene Cernan checks out the lunar roving vehicle (LRV) at the Taurus-Littrow landing site in December 1972. LRVs, also called moon buggies, are electric vehicles designed to expand astronauts' range of exploration on the low-gravity surface of the moon. The east end of the moon's South Massif rises in the background at right.

For as long as humans have gazed skyward, the moon has been a focus of fascination. We could always see our cosmic partner’s mottled, cratered face by eye. Later, telescopes sharpened our views of its bumps, ridges, and relict lava seas. Finally, in the mid-20th century, humans visited Earth’s moonand saw its surface up close.

Since then, a volley of spacecraft have studied our nearest celestial neighbor, swooping low over its dusty plains and surveying its curious far side. Now, after six decades of exploration, we are once again aiming to send humans to the lunar surface.

Early forays into space

The earliest forays into lunar exploration were a product of the ongoing Cold War, when the U.S. and Soviet Union sent uncrewed spacecraft to orbit and land on the moon.

The Soviets scored an early victory in January 1959, when Luna 1, a small Soviet sphere bristling with antennas, became the first spacecraft to escape Earth’s gravity and ultimately fly within about 4,000 miles of the moon’s surface. (Read more about early spaceflight.)

Later in 1959, Luna 2 became the first spacecraft to make contact with the moon's surface when it crashed in the Mare Imbrium basinnear the Aristides, Archimedes, and Autolycus craters. That same year, a third Luna mission captured the first, blurry images of the far side of the moon—where the rugged highland terrain is markedly different from the smoother basins on the side closest to Earth.

Then, the U.S. got in the game with nine NASA...

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