First Person to walk on the Moon

Read the article below.

President Kennedy's wish came true. It took less than 10 years. Humans had walked on the moon. It was 1961. John F. Kennedy was the president of the United States. He wanted to land humans on the moon. The United States had just started trying to put people in space. Was NASA ready to go to the moon? The president and NASA knew they could do it. They were ready to put people on the moon. Apollo 11's mission was to land two men on the moon. They also had to come back to Earth safely. Apollo 11 blasted off on July 16, 1969. Neil Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, and Michael Collins were the astronauts on Apollo 11. 

Apollo 11 was the culmination of the Apollo program and a massive national commitment by the United States to beat the Soviet Union in putting people on the Moon.

Four days later, Armstrong and Aldrin landed on the moon. On the morning of July 20, Armstrong and Aldrin crawled from the command module through an interconnecting tunnel into the lunar module, Eagle. Toward the end of the 12th lunar orbit, the Apollo 11 spacecraft became two separate spacecraft: Columbia, piloted by Collins, and Eagle, occupied by Armstrong and Aldrin. Collins stayed in orbit around the moon. He did experiments and took pictures. On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first human to step on the moon. At 10:56 PM EDT on July 20, Armstrong stepped out onto the lunar soil with the words, “That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.” He immediately described the surface as “fine and powdery” and said that there was no difficulty moving about. Aldrin joined his companion about 20 minutes later.

He and Aldrin walked around for three hours. They did experiments. They picked up bits of moon dirt and rocks. They put a U.S. flag on the moon. They also left a sign on the moon. The two astronauts returned to orbit, joining Collins. On July 24, 1969, all three astronauts came back to Earth safely.