In 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first human to walk on the moon. Those first steps were preceded by a fast-paced technological race between the Soviet Union and the USA. Here's how it all started.
The story of human spaceflight begins in the 1950s. It was a time when there were just two superpowers: the USA and the Soviet Union. And they gave the world a bitter arms race.
If you dominated in space, you could also dominate on Earth. That was the thinking.
And the Soviet Union was out in front. After all, there's little difference between a space rocket and an inter-continental ballistic missile.
It's been 50 years since Neil Armstrong became the first person to set foot on the moon. An incredible step. Even today we are still fascinated — especially when you see the pictures from back then.
Image: NASA
"One small step for [a] man" (July 20, 1969)
One of the first footsteps on the moon. Walking on its surface, Neil Armstrong uttered one of the most famous quotes of all: "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind." How and when he came up with this sentence himself, and whether he forgot a (relatively important) vocal — the 'a' — is still being discussed today.
Image: NASA
Here we go (July 16, 1969)
But lets go back: From the control room of the Kennedy Space Flight Center (KSC), the director of the Apollo program, Samuel C. Phillips, monitors the activities before the launch. Apollo 11, the first lunar landing mission, was launched on July 16, 1969 with a Saturn V launch vehicle. On board the spacecraft: Neil Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin and Michael Collins.
Image: NASA
Space TV (July 16, 1969)
These three were among the thousands of people camping on beaches and streets next to the Kennedy Space Center, NASA's spaceport in Florida, to follow the launch of the Apollo at close range. About one million people visited the space area to see the historic flight.
Image: NASA/Kennedy Space Center
Lights, camera, action, lift-off! (July 16, 1969)
But not only thousands of excited people were present, also thousands of journalists reported on the launch of the Apollo 11 mission. A total of 3497 journalists were officially registered, all of them gathered at the press area of the Kennedy Space Flight Center (KSC). The rocket took off on July 16, 1969.
Image: NASA
So close (July 21, 1969)
This photo was taken by Michael Collins. You can see the lunar module Eagle returning from the moon, behind it the moon itself and on its horizon the earth. While Armstrong and Aldrin were the first humans to step foot on the moon, Collins maintained his position in the Columbia Command Modul. He orbited the Moon alone for 21.5 hours.
Image: NASA
Teamwork (July 20, 1969)
In a NASA statement in 2009 Collins said, "I feel very much a part of what is taking place on the lunar surface. I know that I would be a liar or a fool if I said that I have the best of the three Apollo 11 seats, but I can say with truth and equanimity that I am perfectly satisfied with the one I have."
Image: NASA/Kennedy Space Center
"The eagle has landed!" but... (July 20, 1969, 20:17:58 UTC)
On July 20, 1969 at 20:17:58 UTC, Neil Armstrong transmitted briefly: "The eagle has landed!". But it still took some time until the two of them actually stepped on the moon. First of all, the flight back had to be prepared. On July 21 at 2:56:20 UTC the big moment finally arrived: Neil Armstrong stepped onto the lunar surface.
During 2.5 hours of surface exploration, Armstrong and Aldrin collected 47 pounds of lunar surface material that they brought back to Earth. This small chunk is part of it. During the six Apollo excursions, 2415 samples were collected, almost 400 kilograms. The collected works and their descriptions are listed in the "Lunar Sample and Photo Catalog".
Image: NASA/AccuSoft Inc.
Odd astro imports
Not only samples were collected, but all kinds of stuff was left behind. This brooch by Neil Armstrong is one of the more symbolic objects. The olive branch (less than half a foot in length) represents peace. But you can also stumble over golf balls, a family photo with camera, works by Andy Warhol or a falcon feather. Oh, and beware of astronaut excrement.
Image: NASA/Johnson Space Center
Back to earth (July 24, 1969, 4:50 pm UTC)
The crew landed safely in the Pacific ocean, about 812 nautical miles southwest of Hawaii and 12 nautical miles from the USS Hornet. After their arrival, the astronauts had to fill out a customs form and declare their moon rock. When asked for their disease exposure status, they wrote: "to be determined". They were transported in a quarantine trailer where they were isolated for 21 days.
Image: NASA/Johnson Space Center
Superstars in spacesuits (September 23, 1969)
Well, obviously the astronauts of the Apollo 11 mission don't wear space suits here, but sombreros and ponchos. Fiesta Mexikana! A 45-day tour following the space mission took the astronauts to 24 countries and 27 cities. The US wanted to emphasize their willingness to share their space knowledge. The astronauts were celebrated like superstars like here in Mexico City.
Image: NASA
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John Glenn was one of the first American astronauts. Glenn was a fighter pilot during the second world war and in the Korean War. As a test pilot in 1957, he flew the first supersonic aircraft for the US air force.
But he wasn't so sure whether the US would win the space race against the Soviets.
"They had been launching rockets and ours had been blowing up too much on the launchpad," recalled Glenn later. "That was the background to what happened in 1957, when they sent up Sputnik."
As was discovered later, Sputnik wasn't a particularly elaborate piece of technology — it was a metal ball with a simple radio transmitter and receiver inside.
But the Soviet success shocked the world. And put pressure on the US government to counter this new threat from space.
"In 1957, Sputnik signaled the beginning of the space age, and the United States was behind," said US astronaut Neil Armstrong.
The USA's answer to Sputnik was a far more complex satellite called "Explorer 1."
But not only that, the then-president, Dwight D. Eisenhower, also established an American space agency, NASA.
An answer to Sputnik: Explorer-1, the first American satelliteImage: NASA/JPL-Caltech
A clear vision: Human spaceflight
America's goal was to send humans into space.
"We have one of the most challenging assignments that has ever been given to modern man," said Eisenhowever in a speech at the time.
"We will be developing and launching into space vehicles needed to obtain scientific data and to explore the solar system. We will be preparing for the day when manned flight goes into space," he said.
And the American engineers were sure they could do it, too. They had Wernher von Braun on their side.
Wernher von Braun was a aerospace engineer, who had built rockets for Nazi Germany. After the war, von Braun migrated to the US with about a hundred of his best experts and built an American missile program.
Politicians, like President Kennedy, and scientists considered Wernher von Braun an expert in rockets. Image: picture-alliance/NASA/MediaPunch
The American public saw von Braun as the ultimate expert. It was only later, in the 1970s, that people started to ask questions about von Braun's Nazi past and his involvement in war crimes.
But that wasn't an issue for von Braun in the 1950s.
His sole concern, and that of his team, was delivering better satellites than the Soviets. And they succeeded.
"We have produced more scientific knowledge with our smaller vehicles than the Russians have with their much larger ones," boasted von Braun during a press conference.
Skeptical test pilots
American test pilots at the time were less than enthusiastic about sending humans into space.
"They were trying to convince me how neat it would be to get into a capsule on top of a rocket," recalled US astronaut, Walter Schirra, later. "And I said: No way! Send the idiot who is sitting on a canon in the circus — and forget us! Then they tried to convince me: 'No, it will be alright — we'll put some monkeys and chimpanzees in first'. But I thought: Now I know I want out of here! So I really had a very negative opinion of it."
The chimpanzee Ham flew for the Mercury Project before the first US Astronaut, Alan ShepherdImage: picture-alliance/Everett Collection
Schirra's objections did not hold long.
In 1959, Schirra become one of the first seven astronauts presented by NASA to the public for its Mercury Project.
They were full of optimism in front of the press.
And then the first Mercury rocket started, with a major fault.
"None of us has ever seen a missile launch," said Glenn, who was one of the original seven. "The booster launches and we see a big flame and we stand there watching it like this. And here these seven budding astronauts watching this go up to 27,000 feet and it blew. And it just looked like an atomic bomb over our heads. Then we were looked at each other and thought: We'll have to talk to the engineers tomorrow."
Chimpanzees or people
There was another shock sooner after that.
On April 12, 1961, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person to orbit the Earth. And the Soviets were out in front again.
"We started launching monkeys and chimpanzees and then they launched Juri Gagarin," recalled Schirra later. "We were totally shocked by that."
Head start USSR (L-R): Valery Bykovsky, Valentina Tereshkova, and Yuri Gagarin were the first cosmonauts. Image: picture-alliance/RIA Nowosti
It was time for another strong political signal.
John F. Kennedy had been elected US President. And like Eisenhower before him, Kennedy was determined to take the technological lead from the Soviets.
In a speech, Kennedy said: "I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving a goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth."
Then, in another speech, he reiterated his determination: "We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other thing, not because they are easy, but because they are hard."
The first seven astronauts before the first Mercury rocket explodedImage: picture-alliance/Consolidated News Photos/NASA via CNP
The Soviet lead shrinks
Kennedy could say that because the US had started to catch up.
When Alan Shepherd became the first American to orbit Earth on May 5, 1961, the gap between them and the Soviets had shrunk to less than a month.
The USA had switched to the fast lane.
In the next eight years, the USA launched almost twice as many space missions as the Soviets. However, America's good run was not all good. In 1967 a spacecraft exploded during a ground test and three astronauts died.
That threw the American space program back by 21 months.
But it didn't stop NASA from setting ever more ambitious goals — such as the first moon orbits in October and November 1968. It was the first time astronauts had seen the far side of the moon.
"On Apollo 8, we rotated the spacecraft and saw for the very first time the far site of the moon, only 60 miles below," said US astronaut James Lovell later. "And we were like three school kids looking into a candy store window. I kind of forgot the flight plan for a second as those ancient old craters slowly slipped by."
Edward H. White went on the first space walk in 1965 and died two years later on a test flight for Apollo 1Image: Getty Images/Keystone/Hulton Archive
Media-friendly frenzy
It was a short step from there to landing on the moon.
Apollo 11 was the first mission to land on lunar surface.
Astronaut Michael Collins stayed back in the orbiter when Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong undocked from the Command Module in the landing vehicle, the Eagle.
"There are certain events in life, that you never forget and the lunar landing, and in particular, the last seconds leading up to the landing will never be forgotten," said Gene Kranz.
Kranz was the Flight Director at NASA's control center in Houston, Texas. While trying to land the capsule on the moon's surface, various computer alarms went off.
"As the crew took over, about two minutes prior to landing, searching for the landing site, we knew that we were using a lot more fuel than we had expected," recalled Kranz.
Things remained hectic, even after the successful landing and Armstrong and Aldrin had said those legendary words: "the Eagle has landed."
"No controller had a chance to absorb the emotion of that landing," Kranz recalled, "because we had to work for the next two hours — nonstop."
The moon landing was a world first. And so was the live coverage of the event on TV.
Public interest was huge. More than 2000 journalists were accredited at Cape Canaveral and Houston.
"Up until that moment, TV had always been a goal, but not a requirement," said Kranz.
And that everything would work in the deciding moment was far from certain.
"Once, we landed safely, the only thing that counted for us was to see the picture. What I felt at that moment was: 'The TV better work or else!' and if it doesn't they really will know who I am — because I will be the man who didn't bring you television on the moon."
But the technology delivered and millions of people across the world watched as Neil Armstrong became the first human to put a foot on the moon, and said those other legendary words:
"That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind."
The mythological Moon
It wasn't just the first lunar landing 50 years ago that sparked people's imaginations about the Moon. We explore how the moon has profoundly influenced art and culture for thousands of years.
Image: Imago
Blockbuster of the century
With the historic moon landing on July 20, 1969, the moon could well have lost some of its mythical luster. Suddenly humans were exploring its mysteries first-hand — and even taking photographs. Science, it seemed, had finally conquered the Earth's enigmatic satellite — even its dark side.
Image: Getty Images/Nasa
Fly me to the moon
On July 27, 2018 a rare dual celestial phenomenon occurred: a relatively long lunar eclipse or "blood moon" due to the moon's change in color while shadowed by earth, and the nearest approach of planet Mars in 15 years. The very rare cosmic coincidence had sky gazers out in force. Since the beginning of time, however, the moon has been revered for its magic, mystery and cultural significance.
Image: picture-alliance/Imaginechina/S. Yipeng
Religious symbolism and astrology
People have worshipped the moon since the beginning of time, structuring their lives around its patterns and revering its perceived forces. Sometimes time was counted in moons rather than days or months. The bronze Nebra sky disc, found in Saxony-Anhalt in 1999, represents the duality of early astronomy and spirituality. The disc is estimated to be 3700-4100 years old.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
The meaning of…
In the visual arts, the moon has been used to symbolize a variety of themes: innocence, the Virgin Mary, female sexuality. However, the overwhelming association has always been one of romance. Artists frequently looked to the moon for its magic, as displayed here in Caspar David Friedrich's "Two Men Contemplating the Moon" from 1820.
Image: picture alliance/Heritage Images/Fine Art Images
Immortal muse of the poets
The moon has played a pivotal role in literature since time immemorial. In poetry, it's often used to express melancholy and longing — or often solace, as in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's poem "To the Moon." The opening verse of the poem reads: "Bush and vale thou fill'st again / With thy misty ray / And my spirit's heavy chain / Castest far away."
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/U. Edelmann/Städel Museum/ARTOTHEK/The British Museum(Ausschnitt)
Howl at the moon
The moon may inspire owls and wolves to sing, but humans have also made a habit of howling at it. Famous examples include Matthias Claudius' beloved German lullaby "Gently the Moon has Risen," Elvis Presley's version of Rodgers and Hart's "Blue Moon" and Pink Floyd's seminal 1973 album "The Dark Side of the Moon."
Image: picture alliance/AP Images
Horror and romance
Mark Twain once said "Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody." Since ancient times, legends have abounded about people who turn into wolves at the full moon. The werewolf has been a perennial cinema favorite — as in "The Wolf Man" of 1941, pictured. But the moon has played a role in every genre, including romantic comedies like the 1987 romcom "Moonstruck."
Image: picture alliance/United Archives/IFTN
Eternal mystery
But the magic of the moon wasn't destroyed by its human conquest. Indeed, it still continues to inspire, and in 2013 Chinese artist Ai Weiwei and his Danish collaborator Ólafur Elíasson launched their "Moon" project. At www.moonmoonmoonmoon.com people can immortalize their own drawings of the moon. "Leave your fingerprint and see the shared moon grow as others reach out too," implores the website.
