45th Anniversary of US Moon Landing Today (July 20th)

[DonLever]

Forty-five years ago today, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to set foot on another world. Armstrong's "one small step ... one giant leap" on the dusty lunar surface July 20, 1969, still stirs hearts.

On Monday, NASA will honour Armstrong, who died in 2012, with a renaming ceremony of the historic Operations and Checkout Building at Cape Canaveral, Fla., the launch site. Both Aldrin and Michael Collins, the Apollo 11 command module pilot who orbited the moon, will be there.

• Apollo 11: CBCNews.ca readers recall first moon landing
• Apollo 11 crew ready for moon landing
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• Neil Armstrong grants rare interview to accountants organization
• Neil Armstrong, first man to walk on moon, dies

"For those who may ask what they can do to honour Neil, we have a simple request," the Armstrong family said in a statement after his death. "Honour his example of service, accomplishment and modesty, and the next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink."

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• Buzz Aldrin poses for a photograph beside the U.S. flag deployed on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission on July 20, 1969. Today marks 45 years since Apollo 11 astronauts became the first humans to set foot on the moon. (NASA/Associated Press)
• The Saturn V rocket carrying the Apollo 11 spaceflight launched from the Kennedy Space Center. The trio was launched to the moon at 9:32 a.m. EDT, July 16, 1969. (NASA/Reuters)
• Astronaut Buzz Aldrin walks by the footpad of the Apollo 11 Lunar Module on July 20, 1969. Aldrin, now 84, has been asking people to share memories of the moon landing online. (NASA/Associated Press)
• Astronaut Neil A. Armstrong smiles for a photo inside the Lunar Module while it rested on the lunar surface on July 20, 1969. Armstrong, who died in 2012, will be honoured July 21 with a renaming ceremony of the historic Operations and Checkout Building at Cape Canaveral, Fla., the launch site. (NASA/Associated Press)
• A footprint left by one of the astronauts of the Apollo 11 mission on July 20, 1969. The Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum is recreating the eight-day flight on Twitter. (Associated Press)
• The Apollo 11 lunar module rises from the moon's surface for docking with the command module and the trip back to Earth with the Earth in the background on July 20, 1969. The eight-day mission ended with a spashdown in the Pacific on July 24, 1969. (Associated Press)
• U.S. President Richard Nixon, right, greets the Apollo 11 astronauts (from left Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin) in the quarantine van on board the U.S.S. Hornet after splashdown and recovery on July 24, 1969. Collins, 83, spent decades out of the limelight but will attend the NASA ceremony at the Kennedy Space Center to add Armstrong's name to the Operations and Checkout Building. (Associated Press)
• New Yorkers line 42nd Street to cheer Apollo 11 astronauts Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins and Neil Armstrong (in lead car from left), on Aug. 13, 1969. Today is the first major Apollo 11 anniversary where it falls on a Sunday as it did in 1969. (Associated Press)

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Some other easy ways to get swept up in moon fever:

• Follow along on Twitter as the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum recreates, in 140 characters or less per tweet, the eight-day flight, which began with the Saturn V liftoff on July 16, 1969, and ended with a Pacific spashdown on July 24, 1969
• Tune in to NASA TV via cable, satellite or computer late Sunday night. The space agency will broadcast restored footage of Armstrong and Aldrin's lunar footsteps, beginning at 10:39 p.m. EDT, the exact time Armstrong opened the Eagle's hatch 45 years ago. Take pleasure in knowing this is the first major Apollo 11 anniversary in which the events fall on the same day of the week as they did in 1969.
• Check out your local science museum or planetarium for anniversary events. The Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York City, for example, has a bevy of astronauts on tap as part of its space and science festival. Aldrin is the featured speaker Friday. The five-day festival runs through Sunday.

• Slooh Observatory will broadcast high-definition images of the lunar surface Sunday night, along with a panel discussion, beginning at 8:30 P.M. EDT.

• Pull out the popcorn and relive NASA's early glory days through documentaries and films. Some choices: "The Right Stuff" from 1983, "For All Mankind" documentary from 1989, "Apollo 13" from 1995, "From the Earth to the Moon" TV miniseries from 1998, and "The Dish" from 2000, certainly the funniest and sweetest as it chronicles Australia's key role in the moon landing.

Neil Armstrong smiles at the camera during his trip to the moon in the summer of 1969. (Courtesy of NASA History Office, NASA JSC Media Services Center)

The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex will have an appearance today by former astronaut Bruce McCandless, who served as the Mission Control capsule communicator, or capcom, in Houston as Armstrong and Aldrin walked on the moon. It's his voice that the moonwalkers heard. McCandless later went on to his own fame as the free-flying, untethered spaceman who tested NASA's manned manoeuvring unit, or jetpack, during a shuttle flight in 1984.

The USS Hornet Museum in Alameda, Calif.,, also has nabbed Aldrin for its 45th anniversary festivities — Splashdown 45 — next Saturday, July 26. The aircraft carrier recovered the Apollo 11 crew and capsule, the Columbia, from the Pacific following splashdown. President Richard Nixon was on board to welcome Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins home.

Apollo45: http://www.youtube.com/Apollo45

[Heretic]

[canucklax]

In all seriousness, its one of the greatest achievements by mankind, and I am excited by companies like SpaceX that are picking up the slack from governments (namely the U.S.) that have cut space budgets.

[BananaMash]

Staged

[DonLever]

Personally, I don't remember much of that day since I was pretty young then. You could not see much on a 21 inch b/w tv. All you could see was shades of white and black due to the poor picture quality back then. You did not get HD for sure.

It was a hot day on July 19, 1969 in Vancouver. That I remember.

Any other people on this forum remember the event?

[nucklehead]

Vaguely. Mainly that the adults and teachers were talking about it a lot. My recollection of teh images is that they were so grainy and indistinct that they didn't do all the hub bub much justice.

[Gross-Misconduct]

You do know this was all staged, right?

[MJDDawg]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3Y3M0rJPn4

[Brendan Gaunce]

too bad it was fake

[Jester13]

Kubrick says "Riiiiiiigght"

[Tortorella's Rant]

dat moan landing a total hox.

[DonLever]

You do know this was all staged, right?

You would not be saying that if you were alive back in the 1960's. Apollo XI was not a one-off thing thing as it only part of the Space Race between the US and the Soviet Union starting in the late 1950s. There was the Mercury and Genmini space program before the Apollo program. Thre was Apollo 1-10 before the moon landing and the program continued up to Apollo 17.

Back in the 1960's no one considered the space program and subsequent moon landings as fake. it was only long after the moon landings ended that some people called it faked.

[RUPERTKBD]

Personally, I don't remember much of that day since I was pretty young then. You could not see much on a 21 inch b/w tv. All you could see was shades of white and black due to the poor picture quality back then. You did not get HD for sure.

It was a hot day on July 19, 1969 in Vancouver. That I remember.

Any other people on this forum remember the event?

I was only 8 years old, but it's one of those things where you remember exactly where you were and what you were doing...

I was in a car, on the way to the family cottage on Fraser Lake. We had the radio on and they cut into the program to broadcast the landing.

Edit: BTW, I hope people are not serious about this "staged" business....

[Ghostsof1915]

My first memory is watching Apollo 16 land on the moon. It made a huge impact on me. The thing that NASA doesn't harp on is almost every Apollo flight had some major glitch to it. These were military and ex-military volunteers, who were literally putting their lives on the line for essentially the ultimate test pilot job. Apollo 11 was 60 seconds from aborting the landing. Apollo 12 was hit by lightning and almost aborted. Apollo 13 the astronauts were lucky to get back at all, from the oxygen tank exploding. Apollo 14 had problems with it's landing radar and docking latches.

NASA knew they were pushing the envelope to get to the moon. In the end the cost, and the risk is why they stopped going. What they should have done though is kept the Saturn launch vehicle in production. That way they could have improved and fixed any problems with that booster and it's systems.

In addition there was nothing wrong with the Shuttle concept. The problem was the US Government didn't give NASA the funds to make it safer, more reliable, and more efficient. They had a reusable two stage to orbit concept, and kept cutting corners onto it. To the point where they had a system that barely met their criteria. So instead of a reusable system to lower the cost to orbit. Cutting costs actually made it more expensive.

Still gives me chills on how cool this is.

[MJDDawg]

My first memory is watching Apollo 16 land on the moon. It made a huge impact on me. The thing that NASA doesn't harp on is almost every Apollo flight had some major glitch to it. These were military and ex-military volunteers, who were literally putting their lives on the line for essentially the ultimate test pilot job. Apollo 11 was 60 seconds from aborting the landing. Apollo 12 was hit by lightning and almost aborted. Apollo 13 the astronauts were lucky to get back at all, from the oxygen tank exploding. Apollo 14 had problems with it's landing radar and docking latches.

NASA knew they were pushing the envelope to get to the moon. In the end the cost, and the risk is why they stopped going. What they should have done though is kept the Saturn launch vehicle in production. That way they could have improved and fixed any problems with that booster and it's systems.

In addition there was nothing wrong with the Shuttle concept. The problem was the US Government didn't give NASA the funds to make it safer, more reliable, and more efficient. They had a reusable two stage to orbit concept, and kept cutting corners onto it. To the point where they had a system that barely met their criteria. So instead of a reusable system to lower the cost to orbit. Cutting costs actually made it more expensive.

Still gives me chills on how cool this is.

This was my experience as well.

The fact that all these years later we can look back and see that the modules used to get to the moon had less computing power than your typical smartphone is truly amazing.

[Blame Obama]

celebrating a hoax pfff.

[Papayas]

I was only 8 years old, but it's one of those things where you remember exactly where you were and what you were doing...

I was in a car, on the way to the family cottage on Fraser Lake. We had the radio on and they cut into the program to broadcast the landing.

Edit: BTW, I hope people are not serious about this "staged" business....

Sorry I just can't find anything that supports the moon landing is real. I mean you can believe that USA did managed to bypass the radiation belt and land on the moon with the computer power of an iPhone, but sorry it's hard for me to swallow this.

I mean ffs Armstrong will be cooked alive the moment they enter the van Allen belt

Then there are photograph evidence that dont match up, from the same Terran background in different location to the infamous prop rocks. Seriously there are ahit load of stuffs you can find online that shows the moo landing is very shady

You'd thought it's common sense to question why no one care to land on the moon again for almost 50 years. But hey, we are human being and we don't question stuffs we believe in. Apparently it's too expensive to do it again just like everything else in the world. You successfully do it once and you will never do it again for the next 50 years or more.

[babych]

Sorry I just can't find anything that supports the moon landing is real. I mean you can believe that USA did managed to bypass the radiation belt and land on the moon with the computer power of an iPhone, but sorry it's hard for me to swallow this.

I mean ffs Armstrong will be cooked alive the moment they enter the van Allen belt

Then there are photograph evidence that dont match up, from the same Terran background in different location to the infamous prop rocks. Seriously there are ahit load of stuffs you can find online that shows the moo landing is very shady

You'd thought it's common sense to question why no one care to land on the moon again for almost 50 years. But hey, we are human being and we don't question stuffs we believe in. Apparently it's too expensive to do it again just like everything else in the world. You successfully do it once and you will never do it again for the next 50 years or more.

Then you haven't really looked.

[Papayas]

Then you haven't really looked.

why dont we start by answering how the hell did they get pass the van allen's belt first or any of my points, instead of giving me a freaking one liner?

[73 Percent]

"Moon" "landing"

Modern Family moon landing: http://youtu.be/F53uAOIq70s