July 16: Launch of Apollo 11 (1969)
Prayer Idea
Pray for people who are involved with the study and exploration of the moon.
History Note
Just seven years after President John F. Kennedy challenged Americans to send a man to the moon, Americans were ready to blast off. At 9:32 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time, on July 16, 1969, a Saturn V rocket lifted the Apollo 11 spacecraft from Cape Kennedy to begin the historic flight. On board were astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins and a piece of cloth and a piece of wood from the Wright Brothers’ Flyer, which had flown only 66 years before.
The Apollo 11 mission followed years of research, preparation, testing, and practice. An early test in 1967, known as Apollo 1, ended in disaster. A fire broke out while astronauts Gus Grissom, Edward H. White II, and Roger B. Chaffee were in the command module during a launch rehearsal. All three astronauts died.
NASA sent unmanned spacecraft to the moon, and the Apollo program included two missions in which astronauts orbited the moon but did not land on it.
Three days after launch, the Apollo 11 crew went into orbit around the moon. The following day, July 20, Armstrong and Aldrin climbed into the lunar module, the Eagle, while Michael Collins stayed aboard the command module, Columbia. Armstrong and Aldrin landed safely on the moon, and Armstrong radioed: “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.” Mission Control erupted in cheers.
After a rest period, Armstrong climbed down the Eagle’s ladder. As he placed the first human foot on the moon, he said, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” When Aldrin stepped out shortly after, he said “Magnificent desolation.”
For two and a half hours, Armstrong and Aldrin conducted experiments, took photographs, and collected samples from the moon’s surface. When they completed their assignments on the moon, Armstrong and Aldrin climbed back into the Eagle and lifted off from the lunar surface. They left the legs of the Eagle on the moon. A plaque on the legs reads: “Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the moon. July 1969 A.D. We came in peace for all mankind.” They also left an American flag, a patch honoring the astronauts who had died in the Apollo 1 accident, and many footprints.
Armstrong and Aldrin successfully docked the Eagle with the Columbia command module. On July 24, eight days, three hours, 18 minutes, and 32 seconds after they had left Earth, Apollo 11 splashed down in the Pacific Ocean. The astronauts stayed in a Mobile Quarantine Facility for three weeks until medical doctors were certain that they did not bring a deadly disease back to Earth.
During the early 1970s, ten more astronauts landed on the moon. During the Apollo 14 mission, Mercury 7 astronaut Alan Shepard walked on the moon 11 years after being the first American in space. The Apollo 17 mission in December 1972 was the last time that humans have visited the moon.
This 1969 NASA photo shows the Apollo 11 crew before their mission. From left to right are Neil A. Armstrong, commander; Michael Collins, command module pilot; and Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin Jr., lunar module pilot.
Learn More
Enjoy images and footage from the Earth and space during July 1969.
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