When it was broadcast on TV on July July 20 and 21 in others, 600 million people around the globe watched it. While broadcasting those instantly iconic images was not the technological achievement on a level with actually landing on the Moon, it remains an incredible feat, required the rapid evolution of an array of camera and satellite tech. NASA’s Apollo 11 crew of Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins traveled 240,000 miles in 76 hours to reach the Moon.
Collins remained in the Columbia spacecraft while Armstrong and Aldrin historically headed to the lunar surface in the Eagle.
As the astronauts approached, Armstrong had to take control and navigate beyond the targeted landing spot.
Boulders littered the area, and even though they were running dangerously low on fuel, Armstrong piloted the lander like a helicopter and landed in the perfect spot, all while alarms sounded warnings.
When the lunar module landed on the Moon, it had less than 40 seconds of fuel left.
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The historic moment of Armstrong stepping on the moon roughly six hours later was actually quite blurry as it was seen on TV.
The shot came from a camera attached to the lander.
But what many don’t know is that Aldrin was filming MrArmstrong, too; he captured those monumental steps from above, while inside the lander, looking down the ladder at Mr Armstrong.
Apollo fans and experts have long known about this angle.
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But the public has not previously seen it uncut and in high-resolution, a view that expands our knowledge of the mission.
And then there are the incredible photos shot by the Apollo 11 crew.
While the lunar surface looks quite alien up close, some of the most breathtaking images were captured when the astronauts turned the camera back to the view of Earth from space.
Collins has since said: “Strangely enough, it looks fragile somehow.
“You want to take care of it. You want to nurture it. You want to be good to it. All the beauty, it was wonderful, it was tiny, it’s our home, everything I knew, but fragile, strange.”
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The full triumph of Apollo 11 does not only belong to the heroic NASA astronauts.
It also includes the 400,000 people that supported the mission across the country, mainly at Houston’s Johnson Space Centre in and Florida’s Kennedy Space Centre.
The Apollo program, which saw 12 men walk on the surface of the Moon, was shuttered after the final flight of Apollo 17, in 1972.
But by 2024, NASA vows to land the first woman on the Moon with the Artemis program.
