Apollo 11

On Sunday, July 20, 1969, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed the Apollo 11 lunar module, Eagle, on the surface of the Moon at 3:17 p.m. CDT. Later that day, Armstrong, age 38, and Aldrin, age 39, became the first human beings to walk on another world, 51 years ago this day. Fifty-one years before that, World War I was nearing its end while the 1918 flu pandemic was ramping up in its fifth month of a twenty-six month ordeal.

Armstrong and Aldrin landed at lunar latitude 0.7° N and longitude 23.5° E, in Mare Tranquillitatis (The Sea of Tranquillity). Back here on Earth, the lunar phase was waxing crescent (35% illuminated), and the Moon set that night in Dodgeville at 11:23 p.m.—just a few minutes before Armstrong and Aldrin returned to the lunar module after spending over two hours on the surface of the Moon.

Neil Armstrong stepped down onto the lunar surface at 9:56 p.m. CDT, followed by Buzz Aldrin at 10:15 p.m. After exploring the lunar surface and setting up several scientific instruments, Buzz Aldrin returned to the lunar module at 12:01 a.m., followed by Neil Armstrong at 12:09 a.m. Monday morning.

After five hours of work stowing samples and other housekeeping tasks, Armstrong and Aldrin tried to get some sleep during a scheduled seven hour rest period. However, there were no beds in the lunar module—not even any chairs! Armstrong tried to sleep on the ascent engine cover in the rear of the cabin and Aldrin tried to sleep curled up on the floor. Adding to their discomfort, both astronauts had to keep their spacesuits on. And the lunar module was noisy, bright light leaked into the cabin, and they were too excited to sleep. Aldrin got about two hours of restless sleep. Armstrong got none.

The lunar module took off at 12:54 p.m. Monday afternoon, docked with the command module piloted by Michael Collins at 4:35 p.m., and then the astronauts began their journey home.

One of the little known facts of the Apollo missions is all the high-tech “garbage” that was left behind on the lunar surface to allow the astronauts to bring back more moon rocks. All in all, over 800 lbs. of moon rocks and lunar soil were brought back to Earth during the six lunar landing missions, the last of which returned to Earth on December 19, 1972.