Apollo 11 was the name of the space flight than transported man on the Moon. Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Micheal Collins were the three people who set off for the expedition. It was on 16th July 1969 that Apollo 11 has blasted off on the moon. Four days later i.e. on 20th July 1969 Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the surface of the moon.
Points covered:
- 1969 Man on Moon Journey
- Who was Neil Armstrong?
- What is Apollo 11?
- Objectives of Apollo 11
1969 Man on Moon Journey
- On 20th July 1969 Neil Armstrong became the first man to land on moon and 19 minutes later Buzz Aldrin joined him.
- They spent around two hours and 15 minutes totally outside the spacecraft and 21 hrs 36 minutes on the lunar surface at a site which the named Tranquility base.
- They collected 47.5 pounds (21.5 kg) of the material from the moon to bring back to the earth. While Armstrong and Aldrin were on the lunar surface Micheal Collins flew the command module alone and the lunar orbit.
Who was Neil Armstrong?
Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon along with Buzz Aldrin in the ear 1969. He was a naval aviator, test pilot and also a university professor.
As mentioned in Britannica he joined NASA’s Astronaut Corps in the second group in the year 1962. His first spaceflight was as a commander pilot of Gemini 8 in March 1966. He became the NASA’s first civilian astronaut to fly in space.
In the year 1969 Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first people to land on the moon with space flight named Apollo 11. After landing on the moon he famously said “That is one small step for a man and one giant leap for a mankind”.
The space expeditions Neil Armstrong was a part of got him man awards and accolades. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by the President of United States of America Richard Nixon. President Jimmy Carter presented the Congressional Space Medal of Honour in the year 1978 and Armstrong along with his other crewmates received the Congressional Gold Medal in the year 2009.
What is Apollo 11?
Apollo 11 is the name of the space flight that was a part of America’s lunar mission. This was the space flight that landed the first man on the moon. The commander for this space flight was Neil Armstrong, lunar module pilot was Buzz Aldrin and Micheal Collins was the command module pilot. It basted off on 16th July 1969 and four days later first man landed on the moon.
The space flight Apollo 11 was launched by a Saturn V Rocket from Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. It was the 5th mission in the NASA’s Apollo mission series.
The Apollo 11 spacecraft has three parts:
- Command Module
- Service Module
- Lunar Module
The command module has three compartments for the astronauts in the space flight. The service helps the command module helps with electrical power, oxygen and water. The lunar module has two stages a descent stage for landing on the moon and the ascent stage for placing the space flight back on the lunar orbit.
Once the spaceflight was lifted into the space and sent to the moon the space craft was separated from the Saturn V rocket and travelled for three days to land on the moon. Then Armstrong and Aldrin moved into the Lunar module called the Eagle and land in the “Sea of Tranquillity” on the moon. After spending a good two hours on the moon they returned to the earth and splashed in the Pacific Ocean.
Objectives of Apollo 11
The fundamental goal of Apollo 11 was to fulfil the America’s glorious lunar mission dream. Apollo 11 has successfully fulfilled the dream. Apart from this the space craft had other objectives as well. Some of them are:
- Performa crewed landing on the moon.
- Scientific exploration of the lunar module
- Deployment of television camera to transmit signals to earth.
- Deployment of solar wind composition experiment, Seismic experiment package, A Laser Ranging Retro reflector.
- To extensively photograph the Lunar Terrain.
Apollo 11 was also considered the last in the Apollo series to fly a free return trajectory, which is capable of ensuring free return to earth from the moon with the need for an engine firing.
Wrapping Up
Neil Armstrong first step on the moon was live streaming on television across the world. The entire expedition was indeed a dream come true for not just the President of United States John F. Kennedy as stated by him in 1961 but also to all the Americans across the world. The astronauts left a sign and put an American flag on the moon. They brought back some material from the moon to conduct further exploration and study the substance present on the moon. They returned back to the earth safely on July 24th 1969.
