1969
Kennedy’s Goal Accomplished
Kennedy’s Goal Accomplished
At 12:51 EDT, Apollo 11, the U.S.
spacecraft that had taken the first astronauts to the surface of the moon,
safely returns to Earth.
The American effort to send astronauts to the
moon had its origins in a famous appeal President John F. Kennedy made to a
special joint session of Congress on May 25, 1961: “I believe this 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.”
Eight years later, on July 16, 1969, the world
watched as Apollo 11 took off from Kennedy Space Center with astronauts
Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin Jr., and Michael Collins aboard. After traveling
240,000 miles in 76 hours, Apollo 11 entered into a lunar orbit on July
19. The next day, at 1:46 p.m., the lunar module Eagle, manned by
astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, separated from the command
module, where a third astronaut, Michael Collins, remained. Two hours later,
the Eagle began its descent to the lunar surface, and at 4:18 p.m. the
craft touched down on the southwestern edge of the Sea of Tranquility.
Armstrong immediately radioed to Mission
Control in Houston a famous message: “The Eagle has landed.” At 10:39
p.m., five hours ahead of the original schedule, Armstrong opened the hatch of
the lunar module. Seventeen minutes later, at 10:56 p.m., Armstrong spoke the
following words to millions listening at home: “That’s one small step for man,
one giant leap for mankind.” A moment later, he stepped off the lunar module’s
ladder, becoming the first human to walk on the surface of the moon.
Aldrin joined him on the moon’s surface at
11:11 p.m., and together they took photographs of the terrain, planted a U.S.
flag, ran a few simple scientific tests, and spoke with President Richard M.
Nixon via Houston. By 1:11 a.m. 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 p.m. 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 A.D–We came in peace for all mankind.” At 5:35 p.m., Armstrong
and Aldrin successfully docked and rejoined Collins, and at 12:56 a.m. on July
22 Apollo 11 began its journey home, safely splashing down in the
Pacific Ocean at 12:51 p.m. on July 24.
There would be five more successful lunar
landing missions, and one unplanned lunar swing-by, Apollo 13. The last
men to walk on the moon, astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt of the Apollo
17 mission, left the lunar surface on December 14, 1972.