Apollo 11 40th Anniversary

• Shown here in a May 1969 photo, the Apollo 11astronauts pose near their Saturn V rocket as it sits on Pad 39-A in preparation for their July mission to the Moon. Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Buzz Aldrin were all former test pilots in their late 30s, each about to take their second flights into space.
  
  
  
  

  MPI/Getty Images

• Apollo 11 commander Neil Alden Armstrong was a Navy fighter pilot during the Korean War and later became an X-15 test pilot before joining NASA in 1962. Armstrong had survived two harrowing experiences as an astronaut. During his first mission in 1965, Gemini 8, a thruster malfunction during docking with an Agena target vehicle led to an emergency splashdown. In 1968, Armstrong ejected from a malfunctioning lunar lander trainer just seconds before it crashed and exploded, as seen in this 16mm motion picture frame.
  
  
  
  

  NASA

• Apollo 11 lunar module pilot Edwin Eugene "Buzz" Aldrin Jr. was a West Point graduate before becoming a U.S. Air Force officer and pilot. He was selected as a NASA astronaut in 1963 and made his first flight on the last mission of the Gemini program, Gemini 12, in 1966. He was credited with many innovations in extra-vehicular activity (EVA), including the use of underwater environments to simulate weightlessness, and proved man could effectively work in space during his Gemini EVAs.
  
  
  
  

  NASA

• Apollo 11 command module pilot Michael Collins, just like Aldrin, graduated West Point, became a USAF pilot, and joined the astronaut corps in 1963. Collins' first spaceflight was Gemini 10 in 1966, during which he successfully performed two orbital rendezvous with two different Agena docking targets. Collins originally was assigned on the Apollo 8 crew, but had to undergo surgery to fuse two vertebrae in his neck because of a herniated disc. After a successful recovery, he was reassigned to the Apollo 11 crew with Armstrong and Aldrin.
  
  
  
  

  NASA

• Hundreds of spectators camped out on the beaches and roadways near Kennedy Space Center on Florida's east coast to witness history Wednesday morning, July 16, 1969 by watching the Apollo 11 launch.
  
  
  
  

  NASA

• The Apollo 11 astronauts, led by a waving Neil Armstrong, walk out of the KSC Manned Spacecraft Operations Building after donning their spacesuits and enter a van to travel to the launch pad early Wednesday morning, July 16, 1969. Listen to Apollo 11 launch pad test supervisor Chuck Henschel recall his emotions prior to launch.
  
  
  
  

  NASA

• At 9:32am EDT, the Saturn V rocket, with the Apollo 11 crew riding atop the 36-story vehicle, rose from the launch pad on the way to the Moon. Listen to the final seconds of the countdown as the rocket lifts off.
  
  
  
  

  NASA

• The rocket begins to clear the launch complex as seen from a remote camera affixed to the tower. The Saturn V remains the tallest, heaviest, most powerful operational launch vehicle ever assembled. It could lift more than a quarter of a million pounds into Earth orbit, more than the combined weight of a Space Shuttle and its maximum payload.
  
  
  
  

  NASA

• Former President Lyndon B. Johnson (center) and Vice President Spiro Agnew (right) were among the dignitaries who saw the Apollo 11 launch in person. President Richard Nixon watched the launch via live television from Washington, D.C.
  
  
  
  

  NASA

• NASA personnel within the Launch Control Center, located 3 1/2 miles from Pad 39-A, watch as Apollo 11 begins its roll program to head downrange and into orbit, a process that takes over 11 minutes. The Saturn V was launched 13 times and every launch was successful. Listen as NASA engineer Chuck Henschel explains the reasons for this perfect record.
  
  
  
  

  NASA