A man on the moon was, for much of human existence, a metaphor for an impossible achievement.
Yet the impossible became a reality on July 20, 1969, when American astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin stepped on the moon as part of the NASA Apollo 11 mission.
Michael Collins piloted the command module orbiting the moon for the return to Earth.
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It is arguably the most daring and successful achievement in the history of human exploration.
“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” proclaimed Armstrong. He was the first astronaut down the ladder of the lunar module and completely aware he was making his own leap into human history as the first person to step on the moon.
Here are eight amazing facts about the Apollo 11 moon landing that still inspires shock and awe today.
The jacket that Buzz Aldrin wore to the moon netted an astronomic $2.8 million at auction in July 2022 — seven figures of evidence that the landing still captivates the imagination.
The jacket was offered by Sotheby’s as part of its “Buzz Aldrin: American Icon” collection.
The offerings, consigned directly by Aldrin, according to the auctioneer, included a circuit-breaker switch that nearly ended the lives of the Apollo 11 crew and several documents and checklists from the mission.
Sotheby’s called the collection “among the most significant and valuable space exploration artifacts ever offered at auction.”
The U.S. completed the last of its six manned moon-landing missions with Apollo 17 in December 1972. No other nation since has put a man on the moon. None have tried.
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Russia and China have each landed unmanned research craft or rovers on the moon. A fourth nation is heading to the moon at this moment.
India launched its robotic Chandrayaan-3 moon lander and rover on July 14, with an expected touch-down on the lunar surface on August 23.
Yet in the 54 years since Apollo 11, no nation but the United States has watched proudly as their explorers leaped across the moonscape and planted their flag on its surface.
The incredible feat of humanity galvanized the global community in ways that no other event has before or since.
An estimated 650 million people, in every corner of the world, watched the moon landing — nearly 20 percent of the entire human population at the time.
Armstrong and Aldrin carried a portable 16-mm Westinghouse camera specifically designed to capture images on the moon.
The images were beamed from an antenna on the lunar module to satellites orbiting the Earth, and eventually to TV sets around the globe, according to the Science and Media Museum, representing a giant leap for broadcast technology.
Aldrin took Holy Communion aboard the lunar module and read from the Book of John before following Armstrong onto the lunar surface.
He was given approval by his local minister to take the sacrament himself.
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NASA refused to broadcast his biblical passage back to Earth because the first men to circle the moon on Apollo 8 had read from the Book of Genesis on their return to Earth.
NASA was promptly sued following the Apollo 8 mission by devout atheist Madalyn Murray O’Hair, whom Life magazine in 1964 named the “Most Hated Woman in America.”
The lawsuit had the effect of chilling NASA and preventing any further public expressions of faith in the moon missions.
The moon landing would be a testament to human achievement in the best of times.
The fact that it came great turmoil for America only accentuates the stunning accomplishment.
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The United States was locked in an existential struggle for survival, given the Cold War against the Soviet Union and a deadly hot war in Vietnam.
Protests raged on American streets; serial murderers Zodiac Killer and Charles Manson shocked the nation with their crimes in the summer of 1969; and the counter-culture movement was about to leave its imprint on the nation for better or worse at Woodstock a month later.
Through it all, the U.S. safely and successfully marshaled the expertise and resources to execute one of the greatest achievements in human history.
Only 12 humans have stepped on the moon.
All 12 were Americans. All 12 were highly educated men and all but one was a military pilot — most of them in the U.S. Navy.
Eugene Cernan, part of the Apollo 17 mission, was the last man to walk on the moon, on Dec. 14, 1972.
Four moon walkers are still alive: Aldrin, David R. Scott (Apollo 15), Charles M. Duke (Apollo 15) and Harrison M. Schmitt (Apollo 17).
Armstrong and Cernan, the first and last men to step on the moon, both went to Purdue University.
NASA was able to build on the success of each moon-landing mission by spending an ever-increasing amount of time on the satellite’s surface.
Armstrong and Aldrin explored the moon for just 2 hours, 30 minutes during the first landing.
Cernan and Schmitt spent 22 hours on the surface during the final moon Apollo 17 landing in 1972, even spending time driving around on the lunar rover.
The picture of Aldrin staring at the American flag on the lunar surface is one of the most iconic images in our national history.
NASA knew the image would be highly symbolic; it devoted an entire team to creating what was known as the Lunar Flag Assembly.
It was headed by renowned American engineer Jack Kinzler, who even among NASA’s assembly of nerds was known as Mr. Fix It.
The flag was a standard government-issue 3×5 flag but required a special moon-worthy assembly and telescoping pole for the lunar surface. It was attached in such a way as to appear floating in the breeze on the airless moon.
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“This was one of the proudest moments of my life. I guarantee it,” Cernan said after he placed the last American flag on the moon in 1972.
President Nixon memorialized the importance and purpose of the American flag on the moon by signing a law in 1969.
The law stated: “The flag of the United States, and no other flag, shall be implanted or otherwise placed on the surface of the moon, or on the surface of any planet, by members of the crew of any spacecraft … This act is intended as a symbolic gesture of national pride in achievement and is not to be construed as a declaration of national appropriation by claim of sovereignty.”
