Moon Landing
Discover amazing facts about the Apollo Moon landings, when humans first walked on another world and changed history forever
Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin planted the American flag on the Moon's surface during Apollo 11
The Moon landing was the most incredible adventure in human history! On July 20, 1969, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first people ever to walk on another world when they landed on the Moon during the Apollo 11 mission. When Neil Armstrong stepped onto the lunar surface, he spoke the famous words: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." Meanwhile, Michael Collins orbited the Moon alone in the command module, keeping watch over his fellow astronauts below.
Getting to the Moon was like the ultimate treasure hunt that took eight years to complete! The Apollo program used the most powerful rocket ever built at the time - the Saturn V - which stood as tall as a 36-story building and weighed 6.2 million pounds when fully loaded with fuel. The journey to the Moon took three days each way, and the astronauts had to be incredibly brave to travel 240,000 miles from Earth in a spacecraft smaller than a large RV.
Between 1969 and 1972, NASA sent six Apollo missions to the Moon, and 12 astronauts got to walk on its surface. They collected 842 pounds of Moon rocks, took thousands of photos, conducted scientific experiments, and even drove around in a special Moon car called the Lunar Roving Vehicle! The Moon rocks they brought back are still being studied today by scientists all over the world.
