The First Man on the Moon and the Moon Landing

Neil Armstrong

Neil Armstrong was an astronaut. He landed on the moon in 1969.

He was the first man to stand on the moon.

He travelled to the moon with two other men. Buzz Aldrin, who was the second man on the moon,

and Michael Collins.

Neil Armstrong Buzz Aldrin

Michael Collins

They travelled to the moon in a space rocket on a mission called

Apollo 11.

Here the Apollo 11 mission is leaving Earth using a Saturn V rocket on July 16th 1969.

The tiny spacecraft is right at the top. It separated from the big rocket and

headed for the Moon.

Saturn V

The spacecraft hurtled towards the Moon and it took 4 days.

They slowed down to orbit around the Moon.

Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin moved into the landing craft called Eagle. It

parted from the Command Module and set down on the surface of the Moon. They

had nearly run out of fuel and only had 60 seconds to land or the mission would fail!

Eagle

Command Module

They landed safely and Neil Armstrong told Mission Control “The Eagle has landed”. They got into their Moon

spacesuits. Neil Armstrong backed out of the tiny hatch and climbed down the

ladder.

Neil Armstrong stood on the Moon. He said “That’s one small step for man, one

giant leap for mankind.” Buzz Aldrin joined him. They had only 2

hours on the Moon to do what they wanted to do.

When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin got out on the moon, they

needed a life support backpack to help them breathe.

Neil Armstrong put the American flag on the Moon.

Neil and Buzz made footprints on the surface of the Moon.

They brought back a rock from

the Moon. Scientists tested it to see what it was made up of.

When they were leaving the

astronauts took photos of Earth from their spaceship.

Luckily nothing went wrong as they could have died in space. They left the Moon

and flew back to Earth. It took them 195 hours to return. They landed in the

Pacific Ocean.

When they came back to Earth they were heroes and President Nixon spoke to them. They had to spend 7 days in

quarantine in case they had brought back any germs from the Moon.

President Nixon