Evening Reading

Apollo 11 35th Anniversary

35 years ago on July 20, 1969 Apollo 11 landed on the moon, marking the first time a (hu)man walked and lived on another planetary body.

Niel Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins lifted off aboard their Saturn V rocket at 9:32AM EDT on July 16, 1969 ( Audio: http://www.nasa.gov/62282main_countdown_launch.wav )

3 days later they were in lunar orbit and one day after that Niel Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon at 4:18 EDT with only 30 seconds of fuel left on the lander, Armstrong's heart rate was 150 during the landing! ( Audio: http://www.nasa.gov/62283main_landing.wav )

At 10:56 EDT Armstrong is ready to be the first person to walk on another world. This event was televised and ~ half a billion people watched Armstrong make his historic first step onto the moon (Audio: http://www.nasa.gov/62284main_onesmall2.wav )

They have done it, they have successfully accomplished what JFK had asked for in 1961 with his speech that the "nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth." ( Video: http://www.nasa.gov/vision/space/features/jfk_speech.html )

Links: http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/apollo11/index.html

If you have any questions about the Apollo mission, ask away! I spent too much time reading about them and have lots of knowledge and resources that should be able to answer your questions ( hoax questions will be ignored, please visit http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/tv/foxapollo.html )