Today marks the 40th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11, the first manned mission that took astronauts Neil A. Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin Jr to the moon.
The trip lasted 8 days, and on July 21st 1969, Armstrong stepped off the lunar module and into history as the first human to set foot on another world – “That’s one small step for a man…one giant leap for mankind.” Two and a half hours were spent walking on the moon and on July 24th returned home, making a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.
Boston.com’s The Big Picture is celebrating the anniversary with 40 images of that historic journey. Here are a few of those images.
Many more photos can be found at The Big Picture.
The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum honours the moon landing with the launch of a new interactive website, We Choose The Moon. It recreates Apollo 11’s mission, gives minute by minute progress using archival audio, video, photos, and “real time” transmissions. It’s in a pre-launch phase right now – according to the Apollo 11 timeline actual liftoff occurred at 13:32:00 GMT on this day four decades ago.
Follow the mission progress at www.wechoosethemoon.org.