Pieter C. 5 Report post Posted July 21, 2009 BREAKING NEWS 21 July 1969: NASA Astronauts walk on the Moon following successful Moon landing NASA astronaut and Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong has become the first man to walk on the Moon, taking the historic step at 0356 BST, 109hr 42min after the launch of the mission's mighty Saturn V rocket from Kennedy Space Center. Coming down the ladder of the Lunar Module Eagle very slowly Armstrong activated the onboard television camera and grainy images of him were broadcast around the world. Seen to pause at the lowest rung to test his ability to climb back up again he said, "I'm at the foot of the ladder now," and in the next instant, at 0356 BST, he stepped on to the Moon's surface. His comment as he did it, "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,'" must surely enter the history books. Armstrong is to be joined on the surface by his Eagle pilot Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin shortly and they are to spend a total of about 21h on the Moon, using their Moonwalk to place experiments that will operate long after they are gone at some distance from the lander. Once the 21h is up Armstrong and Aldrin will use the ascent vehicle on the upper half of the Lunar Module to return to low Lunar orbit and rendezvous with their third crew member, Michael Collins, the Command Module pilot aboard the Apollo spacecraft that remained orbiting the Moon. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Forty years ago on 20th July man landed on the Moon and returned a further five times until 1972, a feat never since matched. It was US president John F. Kennedy's lasting legacy to successfully land a man on the Moon and return him safely to Earth and has been one of humanity's greatest achievements. It had all begun with this popular Democratic party president who would not know his life would end three years after he made the speech that launched the Apollo rockets and spacecraft. From May 1961 when president Kennedy announced the plan to go to the Moon “within this decade”, money was no object. That same year NASA’s designs for the three crew Apollo spacecraft were on show, contracts were awarded and by November the 162ft tall Saturn C-1 was flight tested. But the Saturn V, then known as the C-5, was still on the drawing board and in competition with the larger Nova class booster. Nova eventually would be dropped in favour of the Saturn V. But after seven years of technical progress the decadal challenge looked unlikely to be won when in January 1967 a ground test capsule fire killed the Apollo 1 crew. And then the second test launch of the Saturn V had upper stage engine problems. But the third Saturn V test flight, Apollo 8, saw its crew Frank Borman, James Lovell and William Anders go around the Moon and back. This gamble after so much tragedy succeeded and then the countdown to the historic first step in July 1969 went largely as planned. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
