Small Steps & Giant Leaps
On July 20th, 1969 at 20:17 UTC, Commander Neil Armstrong and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin Aldrin landed the Apollo Lunar Module Eagle onto the surface of the Moon while Command Module Pilot Mike Collins orbited above in Columbus.
At 02:56 UTC the following morning, Armstrong climbed down the ladder and stepped off onto the surface of the Moon, uttering the immortal phrase as he did:
That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind. Neil Armstrong
It has been fifty years since the world watched grainy footage from our nearest satelite be set upon by humans. And although we have returned since, and surely will one day again, the moment NASA cheered and the planet gasped is perhaps one of the greatest this little civilisation has ever achieved.
Image courtesy of NASA, who are a wonderful organisation and allow a lot of the things they discover to be freely used and distributed for the greater good.