Fifty years ago today, Apollo 11 began its voyage into history.
The Saturn V rocket carrying astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin and Michael Collins launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 9:32 a.m. on July 16th 1969 — and just four days later, man first set foot on the moon. Saturn V was one of the largest machines ever built, the 363-foot rocket was as tall as a 36-story building.
The moon mission was a milestone in human history. Neil Armstrong stepped into history on July 20, 1969, leaving the first human footprint on the surface of the moon.
“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” Armstrong is famously quoted as saying after walking on the moon, but in interviews he claimed that he meant to say “one small step for a man.”
Nearly a year before President Kennedy proposed it, a House Committee in 1960 that “A high priority program should be undertaken to place a manned expedition on the moon in this decade.” We accepted the job, working nonstop until its completion 50 years ago.
