On July 20, 1969, earthlings reached the moon. Neil Armstrong and then Buzz Aldrin stepped down from the Eagle spacecraft and explored the lunar surface.Today, July 20, 2009, marks the 40th anniversary of the landing and moonwalk.On that day, more than 500 million people worldwide watched Neil Armstrong take his “giant leap for mankind", becoming the first man to step foot on the powdery surface of the moon.

( Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin )

( no words can describe!!! )

The Apollo 11 Lift Off Video:

Aldrin & Armstrong on the moon:

The History of the Apollo Program:

1. Apollo 1 caught fire killing the three astronauts on board, Edward White, Virgil Grissom and Roger Chaffee. The spacecraft was un-fueled but the craft was completely oxygenated. A flash fire erupted killing the three astronauts and the spacecraft was completely destroyed. The following investigation instituted many new safety procedures resulting in a safer program.
2. The program continued between November 1967 and April 1968 with Apollo 4, 5 and 6 being launched without any crew to test and qualify the Saturn V rocket and the Lunar Module.
3. Apollo 7 was launched on October 11, 1968 and was the first manned flight of the Apollo program with a crew of Walter Schirra, Jr., Donn Eisele, and Walter Cunningham. This mission only orbited the Earth to further test the spacecraft.
4. Apollo 8 launched on December 21, 1968 was the first US manned mission to orbit the moon with a crew of Frank Borman, James A. Lovell, and William A. Anders. They orbited the moon on Christmas Eve.
5. Apollo 9 was another Earth orbit flight, testing all aspects of the Lunar Module.
6. Apollo 10 was the second mission to orbit the moon, which brought the Lunar Module within 47,000 miles of the moons surface where the astronauts made two passes over the future landing site.
7. Apollo 11 launched on July 16, 1969 with the crew of Neil A. Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin E. (Buzz) Aldrin, Jr. And on July 20, 1969 Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong became the first men to land on the moon, they landed in the Sea of Tranquility with Michael Collins remaining in orbit in the command module. Upon stepping on the moon, Neil Armstrong said, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”. They set up experiments, took samples and photos. They also left a signed plaque as shown in 8.:
8. 
9. Apollo 12 was the second mission to land on the moon with the crew of Charles Conrad, Jr., Richard F. Gordon, Alan L. Bean. Making a precision landing on the moon on November 14, 1969. Astronauts Conrad and Bean walked on the moon and collected instruments from a previous unmanned craft, the Surveyor III.
10. Apollo 13 launched on April 11, 1970 was to be the third landing on the moon when disaster struck the spacecraft 56 hours into the mission. An explosion in the No. 2 oxygen tank ruptured the line in the No. 1 oxygen tank causing a rapid loss of oxygen. All oxygen, water, electricity and propulsion were lost within three hours. Thankfully, the crew was able to survive and splash down on Earth on April 17th.
11. Apollo 14, 15, 16 and 17 were all successful manned landings on the moon. Landing in different areas of the moon exploring and collecting samples.
12. Apollo 18 also known as the Apollo-Soyuz mission was the final flight for the Apollo program. Apollo 18 was launched on July 15, 1975 and joined with the Soviet Soyuz 19 making it the first time ever that two spacecraft built by different nations docked. The astronauts from the two countries met in the middle and shook hands.

Between July 20, 1969 and December 11, 1972, the Apollo program landed twelve Americans on the moon with six missions. The Apollo program might have been one of the greatest scientific achievements in history.

In 1972 with the Apollo program coming to an end, President Nixon made an announcement that the US would proceed at once with the development of the Space Shuttle program. The first manned US space shuttle was launched on April 12, 1981.

To celebrate the anniversary, NASA has set up a special multimedia website with interactive presentations about the moon landing, including an “audio time capsule,”-the streamed recordings of the communications between the astronauts and ground team from the entire Apollo 11 mission. The broadcast is already up and will continue until July 24 at 12:51 p.m, when the astronauts returned to earth.

Thanks NASA. Thanks for a great ride and for the tech we play with today.

Tags: 40th anniversary, Apollo 11 mission., Apollo Program, Buzz Aldrin, Eagle spacecraft, moon, moonwalk, NASA, Neil Armstrong, spacecraft