Apollo 11, the first manned flight to the moon, took off 50 years ago Tuesday and landed a half-century ago Saturday. See pictures from the event. Read more about one of the moon landing’s heroes, who is buried in Alexandria.
PHOTOS: Apollo 11, the 1st mission to the moon
In this July 16, 1969 photo made available by NASA, the 363-feet Saturn V rocket carrying the Apollo 11 crew, launches from Pad A, Launch Complex 39, at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
(NASA via AP)
In this July 20, 1969 image made from television, Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong steps onto the surface of the moon. Millions on Earth who gathered around the TV and radio heard Armstrong say this: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” But after returning from space, he immediately insisted that he had been misquoted. He said there was a lost word in his famous one-liner from the moon: “That’s one small step for ‘a’ man.” It’s just that people just didn’t hear it.”
(NASA via AP)
This July 1969 photo from NASA shows Flight Activities Officer Spencer Gardner, first row fourth from right, with members of the Apollo 11 White Team, handling descent and landing, in the Mission Operation Control Room in Houston, shortly after the mission. Barely 26, Gardner was one of the youngest flight controllers on duty when the Eagle settled onto the Sea of Tranquility with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on July 20, 1969.
In this July 16, 1969 photo provided by NASA, JoAnn Morgan watches from the launch firing room during the launch of Apollo 11 in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Morgan, who worked on the Apollo 11 mission in 1969, went on to become the Kennedy Space Center’s first female senior executive. She retired in 2003.
(NASA via AP)
In this July 27, 1969, photo, Apollo 11 crew members, from left, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins sit inside a quarantine van in Houston.
(AP Photo)
In this July 21, 1969 photo made available by NASA, the Apollo 11 Lunar Module ascent stage, carrying astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, approaches the Command and Service Modules for docking in lunar orbit. Astronaut Michael Collins remained with the CSM in lunar orbit while the other two crewmen explored the moon’s surface. In the background the Earth rises above the lunar horizon.
(Michael Collins/NASA via AP)
In this July 20, 1969 photo made available by NASA, astronaut Buzz Aldrin Jr. stands next to the Passive Seismic Experiment device on the surface of the moon during the Apollo 11 mission.
(Neil Armstrong/NASA via AP)
In this July 20, 1969 photo made available by NASA, the Apollo 11 Lunar Module undocks from the Command Module on its way to the surface of the moon.
(Michael Collins/NASA via AP)
In this July 21, 1969 photo made available by NASA, astronaut Neil Armstrong, Apollo 11 commander, sits inside the Lunar Module after he and Buzz Aldrin completed their extravehicular activity on the surface of the moon.
(Buzz Aldrin/NASA via AP)
In this July 20, 1969 photo made available by NASA, astronaut Buzz Aldrin Jr. descends a ladder from the Lunar Module during the Apollo 11 mission.
(Neil Armstrong/NASA via AP)
In this July 20, 1969 photo made available by NASA, astronaut Buzz Aldrin Jr. poses for a photograph beside the U.S. flag on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission. Aldrin and fellow astronaut Neil Armstrong were the first men to walk on the lunar surface with temperatures ranging from 243 degrees above to 279 degrees below zero. Astronaut Michael Collins flew the command module.
(Neil Armstrong/NASA via AP)
This July 20, 1969 photo made available by NASA shows Buzz Aldrin’s boot and bootprint during a test of the lunar soil during the Apollo 11 extravehicular activity.
(Buzz Aldrin/NASA via AP)
In this July 20, 1969 photo made available by NASA, astronaut Buzz Aldrin, lunar module pilot, walks on the surface of the moon during the Apollo 11 extravehicular activity.
(Neil Armstrong/NASA via AP)
In this July 20, 1969 photo made available by NASA, Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin works on a solar wind experiment device on the surface of the moon.
(Neil Armstrong/NASA via AP)
In this July 16, 1969 file photo, people watch the Apollo 11 Saturn V rocket launch on multiple TV’s at a Sears department store in White Plains, N.Y.
(AP Photo/Ron Frehm, File)
In this July 20, 1969 image made from television, Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong, right, trudges across the surface of the moon leaving behind footprints. The U.S. flag, planted on the surface by the astronauts, can be seen between Armstrong and the lunar module. Edwin E. Aldrin is seen closer to the craft. The men reported the surface of the moon was like soft sand and they left footprints several inches deep wherever they walked.
(NASA via AP)
This July 20, 1969 photo made available by NASA shows Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin in the Lunar Module cabin during the translunar coast.
(Neil Armstrong/NASA via AP)
This July 1969 photo provided by NASA shows launch controllers in the firing room at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida during the Apollo 11 mission to the moon. In the third row from foreground at center is JoAnn Morgan, the first female launch controller. “I was there. I wasn’t going anywhere. I had a real passion for it,” Morgan said in a July 2019 interview. “Finally, 99 percent of them accepted that ‘JoAnn’s here and we’re stuck with her.’ ”
(NASA via AP)
In this July 20, 1969 file photo, Andy Aldrin, 10, sits on a pile of cordwood in the backyard of his home in Houston while other members of his family listen to the reports of the progress of the Apollo II lunar module carrying his father, Col. Buzz Aldrin and fellow astronaut Neil Armstrong to a landing on the moon.
(AP Photo)
This July 16, 1969 photo made available by NASA shows the Earth as the Apollo 11 mission heads to the moon.
(NASA via AP)
This July 20, 1969 photo made available by NASA shows crater Daedalus and Daedalus B, center left, during the Apollo 11 mission to reach the surface of the moon.
(NASA via AP)
In this July 20, 1969 photo made available by NASA, Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin works on a solar wind experiment device on the surface of the moon.
(Neil Armstrong/NASA via AP)
In this July 20, 1969 photo made available by NASA, flight controllers work in the Mission Operations Control Room in the Mission Control Center during the Apollo 11 lunar extravehicular activity. The television monitor shows astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the surface of the moon.
(NASA via AP)
This March 30, 1969 photo made available by NASA shows the crew of the Apollo 11, from left, Neil Armstrong, commander; Michael Collins, module pilot; Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin, lunar module pilot. Apollo 11 was the first manned mission to the surface of the moon.
(NASA via AP)
In this July 21, 1969 file photo, U.S. Air Force Sgt. Michael Chivaris, Clinton, Mass.; Army Spec. 4 Andrew Hutchins, Middlebury, Vt.; Air Force Sgt. John Whalin, Indianapolis, Ind.; and Army Spec. 4 Lloyd Newton, Roseburg, Ore., read a newspaper headlining the Apollo 11 moon landing, in downtown Saigon, Vietnam.
(AP Photo/Hugh Van Es)
In this July 24, 1969 photo from the U.S. Navy, Navy UDT swimmer Clancy Hatleberg prepares to jump from a helicopter into the water next to the Apollo 11 capsule after it splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, to assist the astronauts into the raft at right.
(Milt Putnam/U.S. Navy via AP)
This July 20, 1969 photo made available by NASA shows pilot Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin in the Apollo 11 Lunar Module.
(Neil Armstrong/NASA via AP)
In this July 24, 1969 photo made available by NASA, flight controllers at the Mission Operations Control Room in the Mission Control Center at the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston, celebrate the successful conclusion of the Apollo 11 lunar landing mission.
(NASA via AP)
In this July 24, 1969 photo from the U.S. Navy, Navy UDT swimmer Clancy Hatleberg prepares to jump from a helicopter into the water next to the Apollo 11 capsule after it splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, to assist the astronauts into the raft at right.
(Milt Putnam/U.S. Navy via AP)
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In this July 20, 1969 file photo provided by NASA shows Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin, the first men to land on the moon, plant the U.S. flag on the lunar surface. Armstrong commanded the Apollo 11 spacecraft that landed on the moon July 20, 1969. He radioed back to Earth the historic news of “one giant leap for mankind.” Armstrong and fellow astronaut Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin spent nearly three hours walking on the moon, collecting samples, conducting experiments and taking photographs.
(AP Photo/NASA)
In this July 24, 1969 photo, the Apollo 11 command module lands in the Pacific Ocean and the crew waits to be picked up by U.S. Navy personnel after an eight day mission to the moon. The Apollo 11 command module, which traveled more than 950,000 miles to take Americans to the moon and back in 1969, is going on a road trip, leaving the Smithsonian for the first time in more than four decades.
(AP Photo, File)
In this July 24, 1969 photo, President Richard Nixon gives an “OK” sign as he greets Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Buzz Aldrin in a quarantine van aboard the USS Hornet after splashdown and recovery in the Pacific Ocean.
(AP Photo)
In this Aug. 13, 1969 photo, people line 42nd Street in New York to cheer Apollo 11 astronauts, in lead car from left, Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins and Neil Armstrong, traveling east on 42nd street, toward the United Nations.
(AP Photo/File)