Important Facts For Prelims
Apollo 11: 50 Years
- 16 Jul 2019
- 2 min read
The year 2019 marked the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11.It was the first manned mission to land on the Moon.
- On July 20, 1969, American astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin became the first humans ever to land on the moon.
- As Neil Armstrong set took his first step on the moon, he famously said, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."
- The Apollo program was designed to land humans on the Moon and bring them safely back to Earth.
- There were five more successful lunar landing missions, and one unplanned lunar swing-by, Apollo 13 (whose lunar landing was aborted due to technical difficulties) under Apollo missions.
- The last men to walk on the moon were astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt of the Apollo 17 mission
- Apollo mission was announced at the time (during the Cold War-era) when the United States was still trailing the Soviet Union in space developments).
- The race was won by the United States when Apollo 11 from the US landed on the moon in 1969, until Apollo 11 landing on the moon, the Soviet Union had been ahead in every department of the space race.
- Even the first animal put on the moon was a Russian (a dog named Laika)
