Apollo 11

Mission Highlights
Apollo 11 launched from Cape
Kennedy on July 16, 1969,
carrying Commander Neil
Armstrong, Command Module
Pilot Michael Collins and Lunar
Module Pilot Edwin "Buzz"
Aldrin into an initial Earth-orbit
of 114 by 116 miles. An
estimated 530 million people
watched Armstrong's televised
image and heard his voice
describe the event as he took
"...one small step for a man, one
giant leap for mankind" on July
20, 1969.
Two hours, 44 minutes and one-
and-a-half revolutions after
launch, the S-IVB stage reignited
for a second burn of five
minutes, 48 seconds, placing
Apollo 11 into a translunar orbit.
The command and service
module, or CSM, Columbia
separated from the stage, which
included the spacecraft-lunar
module adapter, or SLA,
containing the lunar module, or
LM, Eagle. After transposition
and jettisoning of the SLA panels
on the S-IVB stage, the CSM
docked with the LM. The S-IVB
stage separated and injected into
heliocentric orbit four h

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Neil Amstrong

Neil Armstrong is gone but
the footprints he left on the
moon endure. And so does
his unmatched place in
history. Of all humanity, he
was the first to leave Earth
and step onto another world.
And — it being the television
age — he did so while much
of humanity watched.
Always a soft-spoken and self-
effacing hero, Armstrong died
Saturday of complications
after undergoing heart
surgery. He was 82. A private
funeral is to take place Friday.
Forty-three years ago, he
stepped from the Apollo 11
lunar module and onto the
dusty surface of the moon,
declaring it “one giant leap for
mankind.”
More than half a billion
people around the world
looked on — an irony given
Armstrong’s intensely private
nature — and what they saw
was more than just a
technological triumph, or a
space race victory by the
United States. Although the
July 20, 1969 moon landing
was born in cold war rivalry, it
ultimately transcended politics
and became seen as a
universal achievement.

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