` b d f h j l n p r t à ç H J L N P R T V X Z \ µApollo Goes to the Moon
July 16, 1969 AD
CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA
The Saturn rocket stood tall on the launch pad that summer day in 1969. President Kennedy, long dead, had set the goal of putting a man on the Moon by the end of that year. Now we were to see if it was possible.
The Mercury and Gemini programs had sent men into orbit around the Earth. Three Apollo astronauts had died on the ground during a test. Two Apollos, 8 and 10, had orbited the Moon without touching down. But no one in 5 billion years of Earth's existence had ever landed on the Moon.
Three men sat in their capsule atop the gigantic Saturn V rocket with its 3,000 tons of explosive fuel. Apollo 11 astronauts Michael Collins, Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong did their final check-offs, testing that every system was "go" for liftoff.
The countdown sounded through the loudspeakers, echoing around the world. Satellites carried the television pictures to 700 million people, one-fifth of the population of the human race.
At last the word came: "Ignition!"
Kerosene and liquid oxygen flowed into the rocket's five massive engines, generating a thrust of nearly 4,000 tons. With a deafening roar that could be heard for miles, the rocket rose slowly off the launch pad.
Apollo 11 was on its way to the Moon.
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Armstrong: The First Footprint
July 20, 1969 AD
MOON
In all of history, not one human being had ever stepped foot on the Moon. For nearly 5 billion years, no footprints of any Earth creature had dented the dusty lunar surface. "You're asking for the Moon" had been a way to describe a goal impossible to reach.
For billions of years, meteorites and comets had crashed violently into the Moon. Cracks opened, lava flowed, craters formed. Tiny micrometeorites had battered the mountains, flaking off dust that drifted like snowflakes downhill into the valleys and plains.
Down on Earth, continents formed, volcanos cooled, oceans arose, life began. Millions of species came and went. Many of them could fly, but not one of them could leave the atmosphere.
Until one day, an apelike creature came along. For billions of years, fire had been a terrifying accident of nature, caused by volcanos or lightning. This new creature was smarter than anything that had come before. With its powerful mind and skilful hand, this one learned to trap the fire and use it to keep warm, make light, cook food and scare away dangerous animals.
Fire was just one of many tools the new creature had invented. Stone and wood had been turned into weapons and cooking utensils. Much later, someone else discovered that fire could melt metal rocks. The way was set for the Bronze Age, the Iron Age and, eventually, the Space Age.
In 1969, about half a million years after the first creature harnessed fire, its descendents used that same flame to get to the Moon. With the fiery blastoff of the most powerful rocket ever successfully launched, the astronauts of Apollo 11 traveled to lunar orbit.
Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins were in the Command and Service Module, orbiting around the Moon. Armstrong and Aldrin then entered the tiny Lunar Module, barely large enough to seat two men. After sealing the hatches, they separated from the larger module containing Collins.
While Collins sat alone in the universe, Armstrong and Aldrin fell toward the surface of the barren Moon.
With a burst of that ancient fire, the spacecraft slowed and landed softly in the perfectly dry Sea of Tranquillity. Earth shined brightly in the sky, and hundreds of millions of humans all over the home planet watched on television.
Neil Armstrong opened the hatch. He climbed down the short ladder and jumped off the last rung, landing gently with a puff of moondust in the feeble gravity. He made the first footprint ever seen on that airless world.
"That's one small step for a man," he said, "one giant leap for mankind."
Humanity had arrived.
Forevermore, a new catch phrase replaced the old one: "If we can get to the Moon, we can do anything."
