NASA won the space race to the Moon on July 20, 1969, beating the Soviet Union to the lunar finish line. NASA’s Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first two men to accomplish the unimaginable feat. And flying over their heads, locked in lunar orbit, was Command Module Pilot Michael Collins. However, the honour of being the first man to set foot on the Moon was given to Mission Commander Armstrong.
On July 21, just six hours after Apollo 11 landed, Armstrong and Aldrin exited their Eagle Lunar Module.
An estimated 650 million people worldwide watched with bated breath as Commander Armstrong descended to the dusty surface of the Moon.
The astronaut famously announced: “It’s one small step for man, one giant step for mankind.”
And shortly after the astronaut uttered his now iconic phrase, he described to NASA’s Mission Control in Houston, Texas, exactly what the Moon looked like.
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Thankfully for us today, detailed transcripts of the Apollo 11 mission and all audio communications, were stored and digitalised by NASA.
According to Commander Armstrong, the surface of the Moon is very fine and powdery, almost like sand.
The astronaut had no trouble moving around in the lunar regolith and immediately noticed his footprints.
And despite the Moon only having one-sixth of the gravity of the Earth, the astronaut said movements were easier than in Earthly simulations.
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Commander Armstrong said: “Yes, the surface is fine and powdery. I can kick it up loosely with my toe.
“It does adhere in fine layers, like powdered charcoal, to the sole and sides of my boots.
“I only go in a small fraction of an inch, maybe an eighth of an inch but I can see the footprints of my boots and the threads in the fine, sandy particles.
“Ah… There seems to be no difficulty in moving around – as we suspected.
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“It’s even perhaps easier than the simulation of one-sixth G that we performed in the various simulations on the ground. It’s absolutely no trouble to walk around.”
A bit later, while Armstrong and Aldrin were photographing the Moon on Hasselblad cameras and collecting track samples, the astronauts vividly described the sights.
Armstrong said: “It has a stark beauty all its own. It’s like much of the high desert of the United States. It’s different, but it’s very pretty out here.”
Apollo 11 and its three astronauts returned to Earth on July 24 and splashed down in the South Pacific Ocean.
Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins were awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Richard Nixon.