TODAY IN HISTORY
Apollo Astronaut Neil Armstrong
Walks on the Surface of the Moon
21 July 1969
Neil Armstrong
From The NASA Website:
Apollo 11 lifted off on July 16, 1969, with Armstrong, Aldrin and Mike Collins aboard. Collins remained in lunar orbit in the command module while Armstrong and Aldrin descended in the lunar module they had named Eagle to their historic landing on the moon's surface.
"Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed," Armstrong said, telling a tense and waiting Earth that men had finally reached the lunar surface.
He and Aldrin spent about two hours exploring, gathering more than 50 pounds of moon rocks and setting up three scientific experiments. The next day, after 21 hours and 37 minutes on the moon, they fired Eagle's engine to begin the return to Collins and the command module.
The crew returned to Earth, landing near the USS Hornet in the Pacific after a mission of just over eight days. President Richard M. Nixon was on the aircraft carrier's deck to welcome them.
"This is the greatest week in the history of the world since the creation," Nixon told the three.
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