Neil Armstrong Was The First Of 12 Men Who Have Walked On The Moon.

When Neil Armstrong stepped down onto the moon’s cratered surface with the words, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind, ” every nation on earth seemed to breathe a collective sigh of relief.  National Moon Day celebrates not only the historic lunar landing on  July 20, 1969, but the day also reminds us of the uphill slog to get the space program literally off the ground.

On Moon Day, we remember both the quirky and profound moments in the space race that ended with the Americans being the first to plant their flag on the moon.  Stick around— the story is fascinating!

• 1961 – In a historic speech on May 25, President John F. Kennedy signals the start of NASA’s Apollo space program and his plan to see an American on the Moon by the end of the decade.
• 1964 – For the first time, American TV viewers get to view the Moon’s cratered surface from images transmitted by NASA’s unmanned probe, Ranger 7.
• 1968 – NASA’s Apollo 8 orbits the Moon 10 times as the first manned flight while Americans watch on television.
• 1969 – On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 carried the first humans to the moon. Six hours after landing on the moon, American Neil Armstrong stepped onto the lunar surface. He spent two and a half hours outside the spacecraft. Buzz Aldrin soon followed, stepping onto the lunar surface
• 1969 – At 10:56 P.M., Armstrong stepped on the moon’s powdery surface, and spoke his iconic words: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
• 1972 – NASA shuts down its Apollo program with a final manned landing — Apollo 17.
• 2020 – No less than five (unmanned) missions were set for between 2020 and 2021, including NASA’s Mars 2020 rover.
• Over 600 million people worldwide watched the live lunar landing, eclipsing all previous TV ratings records.
• 5th – the ranking of our Moon’s size compared to others in our solar system.
• 14.6 million – the number of square miles of the surface area of the Moon.
• 30 – the number of Earth-sized planets that could fit between the distance of the Earth and the Moon.
• 2300 mph – the traveling speed of the Moon orbiting the Earth.
• 1 inch – the distance the Moon drifts farther from Earth every year.
• 16.5% – the percentage decrease in a human’s weight on the Moon.
• 12 – the number of men who have walked on the Moon.
• 1950s – the period when the U.S. proposed detonating a nuclear bomb on the Moon.
• 30 seconds – the amount of time in terms of fuel that was left when Neil Armstrong landed on the Moon.
• 73,476,730,924,573,500,000,000 kg – the mass of the Moon.
• President Nixon had an alternate speech ready in case the mission failed.
• The flag on the moon is a nylon flag purchased from a government catalog, it was not designed to handle the harsh conditions of space and has somewhat disintegrated.
• Here are some books and documentaries about the Apollo 11:
  • In the Shadow of the Moon (2007) directed by David Sington
  • First to the Moon: The Journey of Apollo 8 (2018) directed by Paul J. Hildebrant
  • One Giant Leap: The Impossible Mission That Flew Us to the Moon by Charles Fishman
  • A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts by Andrew Chaikin
  • Hidden Figures by Margo Lee Shetterly
• Three African-American women got us there.  Mathematician Katherine Johnson, along with two other black women, were instrumental in calculating NASA’s routes to the moon for its first lunar landing. Director Theodore Melfi and writer Allison Schroeder finally told their story in the 2016 film Hidden Figures.
• Armstrong felt it was important to show how aviation had progressed which is why he carried a small piece of wood from one of the Wright Brothers’ planes.
• By the time it landed, the Lunar Module barely had any fuel left.

Sources:

National Today

National Day Calander