EDT on 20 July) with the words, "That's one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind." Aldrin followed 19 minutes later. One Giant Leap.Īrmstrong stepped onto the lunar surface at 02:56 UT on July 21 (10:56 p.m.
They needed to be ready to leave quickly if one of the lunar module’s footpads began to sink into the dust, a fuel tank on the ascent stage appeared damaged, or some other emergency arose. The astronauts immediately prepared the spacecraft to lift off and return to orbit. Armstrong, with his heart racing at 150 beats per minute instead of his usual 60, coolly radioed the message, "Houston, Tranquility Base here. But they touched down safely at 20:17 UT (4:17 p.m. The fuel gauge read disturbingly low and dust, which the rocket engine blasted off the ground, obscured their view. Armstrong overrode the automatic landing system when the astronauts saw that it was taking them to a dangerously rocky region.
#DATE OF FIRST MAN ON THE MOON SERIES#
The descent was punctuated by a series of alarms caused by radar-tracking problems and computer overload. This first human landing on the Moon did not go smoothly. They used harnesses augmented by handholds, arm rests and Velcro strips on the soles of their shoes to keep from bouncing around the cabin. And since chairs were omitted to keep the weight down, the astronauts stood during both descent and ascent. The floor of the crew compartment that the two men shared measured about 36 by 55 inches (91 by 140 centimeters). Walls as thin as a couple of sheets of printer paper were all that shielded the astronauts from the vacuum of space as they descended to the lunar surface. The lunar module was very different from the command module, which would have to withstand the heat and stress of re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere.
"Buzz" Aldrin Jr., pilot of the lunar module “Eagle,” landed in Mare Tranquilitatis (the Sea of Tranquility) on July 20, 1969, while Michael Collins continued orbiting the Moon in the command module “Columbia.” Descent to the Moon A little more than eight years later, that feat was accomplished.Īpollo 11 Commander Neil A. On May 25, 1961, six weeks after Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person to fly into space and just 20 days after Alan Shepard became the first American to do so, President Kennedy declared a national goal of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth by the end of the decade.
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