Moon landing anniversary: NASA's most breathtaking photos taken on the Moon by Apollo 11

US space agency NASA has released previously unseen panoramas of Apollo 11 Moon landing sites. The images were created to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing, on July 20, 1969. These images document a lunar landscape once eloquently described by Buzz Aldrin as “magnificent desolation”.

The world today marks the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing, an event seen as the apogee of the 1960s US space programme which witnessed the space race between Cold War rivals.

July 16, 1969, saw the launch of a massive Saturn V rocket from Florida’s Kennedy Space Centre, sending three NASA astronauts on a quarter of a million-mile trip to the Moon.

Neil Armstrong made history when he stepped out of Apollo 11’s Eagle landing module on 21 July 1969, leaving the first human footprints on Earth’s lunar satellite.

Armstrong’s colleague Buzz Aldrin joined him about 20 minutes later, while Michael Collins single-handedly piloted the Columbia command module as it orbited the Moon.

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After almost one day on the lunar surface, the pair returned to the mothership and the Apollo 11 crew adjusted the craft’s trajectory in order to return to the Earth.

Their capsule splashed-down in the Pacific Ocean on July 24 and the trio returned as heroes celebrated around the world.

A worldwide audience of an estimated 600 million people watched the broadcast of the first Moon landing.

The Moon landing was the result of months of intense training and preparations.

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Each of the three NASA astronauts, including backup flight crews, had to prepare for every possible eventuality.

Their draining training regimes were documented on photographs revealed by NASA ahead of the 50th Moon landing anniversary.

NASA said: “Arriving at the Kennedy Space Centre after the Fourth of July holiday weekend, they busied themselves with final training for the mission.”

In the very last days before launch, the three astronauts participated in aerobatic glitch tests in a T-38 Talon training aircraft.

The astronauts would intensely review their spaceflight plan to make sure all went according to plan on the day.

Armstrong and Aldrin, who would descend to the Moon in the Eagle lunar module, trained in a specially built simulator.

Meanwhile, Collins trained separately in a Command Module simulator, as he would not step futon the Moon.

Due to the weakened force of gravity on the Moon, Aldrin took part in KC-135 parabolic flights to experience the effect of one-sixth of the Earth’s gravity.

And Commander Armstrong, who ended up manually piloting the lunar module to the Moon after being thrown off course, prepared with helicopter lessons.

source: express.co.uk