Description: This color image shows the launch of Apollo 11 on July 16, 1969, at 9:32 a.m. (EDT), John F. Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida. Flames and smoke billow from the Saturn V rocket as it lifts off the launchpad. Apollo 11 made history on July 20, 1969, when its lunar module landed on the moon. Mission commander and Ohio native Neil Armstrong (1930-2012) and fellow astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin became the first people to walk on the moon, spending 2.5 hours taking photographs and collecting samples. During their exploration the mission's third astronaut, Michael Collins, remained in the command module "Columbia" as it continued its orbit. The historic mission ended July 24, when the command module and crew splashed down in the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL06903
Subjects: Armstrong, Neil, 1930-2012; Ohio Economy--Science and Technology; Aldrin, Buzz; Apollo 11 (Spacecraft); Space flight; Project Apollo (U.S.); Space vehicles
Places: Cape Canaveral (Florida); United States
 

Description: Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, Jr. erect the United States flag on the moon, July 20, 1969, as part of the Apollo 11 mission. Neil A. Armstrong was born in Wapakoneta, Ohio, on August 5, 1930. He received Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in aeronautical engineering from Purdue University. After serving as a naval aviator from 1949 to 1952, Armstrong joined the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) in 1955. For the next 17 years he worked for NACA and its successor agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). As a research pilot at NASA's Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, he was a project pilot on many pioneering high speed aircraft. Armstrong transferred to astronaut status in 1962 and was assigned as command pilot for the Gemini 8 mission, which was launched on March 16, 1966. As spacecraft commander for Apollo 11, the first manned lunar landing mission, Armstrong gained the distinction of being the first man to land a craft on the moon and first to step on its surface. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL08393
Subjects: Armstrong, Neil, 1930-2012; Space flight; Apollo 11 (Spacecraft); Science and Technology