One Giant Leap: The 1969 Moon Landing
"The Eagle has landed," astronaut Neil Armstrong told mission controllers in Houston, Texas, where celebrations immediately began.
These were Armstrong's second most famous words. He was speaking from the Eagle, the small spacecraft that landed the first two astronauts on the moon on July 20, 1969, during the US Apollo 11 mission.
The moon landing was one of the biggest events of the 1960s, and a huge step forward in space travel. It gave the United States an advantage over the Soviet Union in the 20th century space race.
Armstrong was the first person to walk on the moon, leaving the spacecraft more than four days after it left Cape Kennedy — now Cape Canaveral — in Florida.
"That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind," Armstrong said as he took his first step onto the moon. He later said his most famous words were planned by him only after the Eagle had landed on the moon.
Armstrong and the second astronaut who stepped on the moon, Buzz Aldrin, walked around for two-and-a-half hours. They collected rocks to take back to Earth, took photographs, and left behind a US flag.
About 650 million people around the world watched the moonwalk on TV. At the time, it was the largest television audience ever. Armstrong and Aldrin became global celebrities.
After the successful mission, Armstrong praised the "300,000 or 400,000 people" — scientists, computer experts, doctors and many others — whose work over 10 years had made the moon landing possible.
