Among the numerous space programs undertaken to explore the planets and outer space, the Apollo 11 mission is probably the most important. It was the mission that brought man to the Moon for the first time.
After the successful landings of US and Soviet probes, the US president at the time, J. F. Kennedy, promised that man would land on the Moon by the end of the 1960s. And so it was.
On the 20th of July 1969, the Apollo 11 lunar module Eagle touched down in the Mare Tranquillitatis (ocean of tranquility). In the early hours of the morning of the 21st of July 1969, Neil Alden Armstrong (1930-) became the first human being to walk on the surface of the Moon. Shortly after him, Edwin Eugene Aldrin (1930-) became the second. Both remained outside the module for two hours, collecting rock samples and taking numerous photographs. Several more manned missions traveled to the Moon after Apollo 11 for further exploration.
A 110-meter high Saturn V carrier rocket was used for the first manned flight to the Moon. It was launched on the 16th July 1969 in Cape Canaveral. The Saturn V had a space capsule mounted on its tip. Its three stages all used liquid fuel. With its almost 3000 tons of fuel it achieved a thrust of about 3500 tons and transported a payload of 140 tons into space.
For a rocket to overcome the gravitational pull of the Earth, large amounts of fuel must be burnt. The gases that are produced create thrust when they stream out. As the rocket would be too heavy to bring into orbit in one piece, it is built in several stages, one over the other. The individual stages are ignited in succession and are cast off when they are exhausted. They land either in water or with the help of a parachute to brake their fall. Stages cast off at higher altitudes burn up in the atmosphere. At great altitude and high speed the final stage releases its payload, a satellite or space capsule. The energy input was thus enormous!
