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Henry
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« : July 20, 2009, 09:25:32 AM » |
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I strongly suspect that I was in bed sleeping, and feel just a bit guilty that all of these people remember exactly what they were doing as they watched Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon at 10:56 P.M. Eastern Daylight Savings Time on the moon, but I personally have absolutely no recollection. Thank God for today's Internet, so I can act somewhat intelligent about this historical moment.
During a Congressional address on May 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy proposed that the United States accelerate its space program and set as a national goal a manned lunar landing and safe return by the end of the decade. With the launch of Apollo 11 on July 16, 1969, that goal became a reality. The Apollo 11 astronauts were Neil Armstrong, mission commander, Edwin (Buzz) Aldrin, lunar module pilot, and Michael Collins, command module pilot. The spacecraft went into lunar orbit 110 kilometers above the Moon's surface.
On July 20, 1969, Armstrong and Aldrin landed the Lunar Module Eagle on the Moon's Sea of Tranquility at 4:18 P.M.
Approximately six and one-half hours later at 10:56 Eastern Daylight Savings Time, Armstrong put his left foot down on the rocky plain while the largest television audience in history watched live.
Michael Collins remained in orbit in the command module conducting scientific experiments and taking photographs. Armstrong and Aldrin "moon walked" for three hours setting up scientific instruments and collecting soil and rock samples. The astronauts also planted an American flag in the lunar soil and left a plaque commerating man's landing on the Moon. Eagle was on the Moon's surface for 22 hours before it lifted off to rejoin the command module. After a flight of 8 days, 3 hours, and 19 minutes, Apollo 11 splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on July 24 at 12:51 E.D.S.T.
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