Apollo 11

Apollo 11

From countdown to splashdown, Apollo 11's mission was filled with some surprising twists and turns. It took a combination of luck, determination and guts for the crew of Michael Collins, Buzz Aldrin, and Neil Armstrong to get the Eagle to the surface of the moon with only 30 seconds of fuel remaining! Experience the moments leading up to the lunar landing with me.

On the morning of July 16, 1969 a 60-ton Saturn 5 rocket was given a thorough inspection on launch pad 39-A at the Kennedy Space Center. On board, Four and half tons of fuel, and a spider-shaped spaceship covered with gold and silver foil.

The goal of Apollo 11 was stated very simply. Perform manned lunar landing and return mission safely. Simply stated, but almost impossible to achieve, it was the mission NASA had been preparing for almost a decade, and nobody was trying to pretend this was just another launch.

It would take this rocket ship almost three days to reach the shores of their new world. For the crew on board, that’s when the real mission would begin. Until then, they could marvel at a view that only six people before them had been privileged enough to see.

Exactly 75 hours and 50 minutes after blasting off from Earth, the crew of Apollo 11 entered lunar orbit, something only two crews before them had done. Every orbit brought the crew closer to their ultimate destination, the Sea of Tranquility, a flat surface near the Moon’s equator that would be lit by the Sun when the final approach began. On the 13th orbit of the Moon, Aldrin, Armstrong and Collins began their voyage into uncharted territory.

On the morning of Sunday July 20th, the three crew members were woken up after a restless night’s sleep. Aldrin and Armstrong climbed through the tunnel connecting the Command Module to the lunar lander and entered the spaceship they had named, The Eagle.

For Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong, life would soon become much more curious than that. With the flick of a switch, Collins detached The Eagle from the mother ship Columbia and the journey to the surface of the Moon had begun.

With very little fanfare the Eagle rounded the corner to the far side of the Moon. The crew has a series of maneuvers to perform during their final lunar orbit. But the crew on the ground is helpless.