On July 16th 1969 Apollo 11 launched and broke orbit with the earth, headed straight to the moon. Oddly enough going to the moon is considered deep space exploration. This was the fourth mission to the moon, but only the first to land on the moon and the first for a man to walk on the moon.
July 20th Armstrong and Aldrin bid the pilot of the command module, Mike Collins, adieu and the two entered the LEM and started their decent towards the lunar surface. As they were headed to their destination landing several alarms went off inside the LEM but after the ground crew gave the "OK" Armstrong and Aldrin continued their decent. However another adrenaline rush was about to hit both the LEM's crew and the ground crew as Armstrong looked at the window and realized where they were headed was strewn with many boulders. He had to maneuver the craft around, which appeared to be a dangerous problem as the men were beginning to run out of fuel. If problems persisted they would have to abort the mission and return to earth, having to face the public about a failed mission.
With only seconds to spare before they would have abort the Eagle safely landed in the Sea of Tranquility.
The two astronauts were told to rest before the scheduled lunar walk. Restless and unable to sleep Armstrong requested being allowed to do the walk hours before schedule. Upon descending the latter Armstrong spoke these famous words, "That's one small step for man. One giant leap for mankind."
Across the world people heard these words, cried, celebrated and partied. America was the first to land on the moon. Who knew we would also be the last?
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