Remembering Neil Armstrong and Co: The first manned mission to the moon

Apollo 11, the first manned lunar landing mission, safely returned to Earth on July 24, 1969, after a four-day mission. Check out some facts about the journey:

The Saturn V rocket that propelled the crew to the moon still remains the tallest and heaviest ever built. It measured in at 363 ft and had to be assembled in what was the largest building (by volume) at the Vehicle Assembly Building in the Kennedy Space Centre.



While three men left Earth, only mission commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Edwin Aldrin actually walked on the Moon. Command module pilot Michael Collins was the one to stay in the orbiting Columbia craft.



Among several items left on the surface of the Moon were medallions bearing the names of the astronauts who perished in Apollo 1 on the launch pad, and the two cosmonauts who perished in a similar accident.



The period spent outside the Earth’s atmosphere is known as “extravehicular activity”, or EVA. The total EVA on the Moon lasted 21 hours and 36 minutes.



The TV audience for the event was an estimated 600 million, which held the record for 12 years until the royal wedding of Princess Diana and Prince Charles in 1981. This grabbed a TV audience of 750 million.

Source: history.com, nationalgeographic.com