On 50th Anniv. Of Lunar Landing.. Here's Apollo 11th Story

Tomorrow, US celebrates 50th anniversary of launching the moon landing mission of Apollo 11th.

The story started in the late 1950 when a space race developed between the US and the then Soviet Union, after the 1957 launch of the first Soviet Sputnik satellite.

When John F Kennedy became US President in 1961, Soviet Union made the first ever manned spaceflight. The missions by Soviet cosmonauts including Yuri Gagarin and Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space, worried the US.

[caption id="attachment_65470" align="aligncenter" width="373"] Yuri Gagarin and Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space.[/caption]

Washington was determined, accordingly, to get a manned mission there first and in 1962 Kennedy made a now-famous speech announcing: "We choose to go to the Moon!"

The space race continued and in 1965 the Soviets successfully guided an unmanned craft to touch down on the Moon.

The US space agency, NASA, committed huge amounts of resources to what became known as the Apollo program which costed at the time of $25bn.

According to a report by AP on the mission, it took 400,000 people to put Apollo 11's Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon. That massive workforce stretched across the U.S. and included engineers, scientists, mechanics, technicians, pilots, pers, seamstresses, secretaries and more who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to achieve those first lunar footsteps .

An overview of the mission published on NASA website explained that the lunar operation was achieved "to complete a national goal set by President John F. Kennedy on May 25, 1961: perform a crewed lunar landing and return to Earth".

However, there were other scientific objectives for the mission included exploration by the lunar module, or LM, crew; deployment of a television camera to transmit signals to Earth; and deployment of a solar wind composition experiment, seismic experiment package and a Laser Ranging Retro reflector.

[caption id="attachment_65468" align="aligncenter" width="402"] The lunar module as seen from the command and service module[/caption]

During the exploration, the two astronauts were assigned to gather samples of lunar-surface materials for return to Earth. They also directed to extensively photograph the lunar terrain, the deployed scientific equipment, the LM spacecraft, and each other, both with still and motion picture cameras.

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.

[caption id="attachment_65467" align="aligncenter" width="355"] The Saturn V rocket lifts off[/caption]

On 20 July - nearly 110 hours after leaving Earth, Neil Armstrong became the first human to step on to the surface of the Moon. He was followed 20 minutes later by Buzz Aldrin.

Armstrong's words, beamed to the world by TV, entered history: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

Watch here all the videos of the historical landing posted by NASA.

The two men spent more than two hours outside the lunar module, collecting samples from the surface, taking pictures, and setting up a number of scientific experiments.

In total, Armstrong and Aldrin spent 21 hours, 36 minutes on the moon's surface. After a rest period that included seven hours of sleep, the ascent stage engine fired at 124 hours, 22 minutes.

After completing their Moon exploration, the two men successfully docked with the command and service module.The mission continued for around 50 minutes. The return journey to Earth began and the crew splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on 24 July.

[caption id="attachment_65469" align="aligncenter" width="396"] The three astronauts after being picked up in the Pacific[/caption]

According to NASA,  this was to be the last Apollo mission to fly a "free-return" trajectory, which would enable a return to Earth with no engine firing, providing a ready abort of the mission at any time prior to lunar orbit insertion.

Commemorative medallions bearing the names of the three Apollo 1 astronauts who lost their lives in a launch pad fire, and two cosmonauts who also died in accidents, were left on the moon's surface. A one-and-a-half inch silicon disk, containing micro miniaturized goodwill messages from 73 countries, and the names of congressional and NASA leaders, also stayed behind.

[caption id="attachment_65472" align="aligncenter" width="417"] The Moon landings became a cause for national celebration[/caption]