Bhubaneswar: The world today is celebrating the 50th anniversary of NASA’s Apollo 11 lunar mission in which the first human being landed on the Moon. Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the surface of the moon and experienced the greatest moment of mankind in space.
Launched from Cape Kennedy on July 16th 1969, the ambitious project of NASA carried Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin in Apollo 11. On July 20, Neil Armstrong became the first person in mankind to put his first step on other planetary body on the lunar surface. Till date Armstrong’s words from Moon “that’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” have become the most quoted in the field of Space science.
The two astronauts spent 21 hours, 36 minutes on the Moon’s surface and returned to earth on July 24, 1969. To celebrate the anniversary, Google has created a special Doodle which depicts epic moment in the history of mankind.
The mission had used one of the most powerful rockets of all time, the Saturn V taking off from the Kennedy Space Center. The mission was live telecast in the US and millions watched on television anxiously as the crew steered the module to landing site in a crater named the ‘Sea of Tranquility’.
The Apollo 11 crew returned to the Earth in a challenging maneuver on 25th July 1969. After the historic moment, the NASA continued its efforts with ten more American astronauts sent to the Moon.