On July 20, 1969, a human walked on the Moon for the first time.
Relive the full journey to and from the the Moon with the timeline below.
Liftoff! The Apollo 11 Spacecraft launched from Cape Kennedy.
Over a million spectators, including Vice President Spiro Agnew and former President Lyndon Johnson, have come to watch the lift off.
From launch to landing, Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins were on a three day journey to the moon. One thing that was not widely publicized during the Apollo program was that the astronauts carried music with them into space. According to most accounts, the astronauts of Gemini and Apollo listened mainly to adult contemporary and country music.
Neil Armstrong’s musical tastes were a bit more complex than his colleagues. He chose to bring something spacey onboard his space capsule: Theremin music.
The lunar module with Armstrong and Aldrin aboard was undocked from the command module. At 101:36 GET, the descent to the surface of the moon began.
Michael Collins stayed aboard the Command Module Columbia, serving as a communications link and photographing the lunar surface.
The lunar module touched down on the surface on the moon.
Neil Armstrong begins his descent from the lunar module and takes humankind’s first steps on the moon, followed by Buzz Aldrin.
On the moon, the astronauts carried out a planned series of experiments. Approximately two hours and fifteen minutes later, the astronauts prepared to reenter the lunar module.
The ascent from the lunar surface began. At 21:35 UTC (5:35 pm ET) lunar module would rendezvous with the command and service modules, where Michael Collins would welcome back Aldrin and Armstrong. At 23:41 UTC (9:41 pm ET) Lunar Module Eagle was jettisoned into lunar orbit.
Apollo 11 left lunar orbit to return to Earth.
The astronauts returned to Earth. In case the Moon had any traces of biological pathogens, the astronauts had to stay in quarantine for 21 days.
The United States celebrated the returning heroes in the time-honored tradition reserved for such occasions: parades. The astronauts were lauded at parades across the nation, from New York, to Chicago, to their hometowns, and eventually partook in a world tour.