Apollo 11: Taking humanity to Moon

Introduction

Man’s ambition to explore beyond the boundaries of the earth has never ended. And we always do whatever is necessary for that. The same is what happened in 1969 when Neil Alden Armstrong dared to put his feet on the sandy surface of the moon. So today let me tell you the story of humans achieving this massive feat.

Image source - Google | Image by - Encyclopedia Britannica | The Apollo astronauts

The beginning

It all started in 1961 when president John F. Kennedy presented a national goal of sending a crewed satellite to land on the moon and return. There were many other technical objectives too. The astronauts there would bring back samples from the surface of the moon. This idea would revolutionize and leave a mark on history. On July 16,1969, the president’s wish came true. The Lunar Module (LM) was code-named Eagle and the Command Service Module (CSM) was code-named Columbia. The astronauts climbed the spacecraft and launched into space so as to put the man on the moon. What happened after that is the most glorious part.

An astronaut on the moon

The duration and activity of Apollo 11

The Apollo 11 carried Commander Neil Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin. The plan was to land Armstrong and Aldrin on the moon while keeping Collins in orbit. The initial Earth orbit they would reach was 114-116 miles. Here is the timeline:

 

This is one small step for man but a giant leap for mankind

I am not going to include what happened after this but, yes, here’s a photo of Amstrong’s boot print.

Image source - Google | Image by - NASA | Armstrong's bootprint on the moon

Almost 650 million people watched this telecast and were surprised to see that humanity has gained control over the moon too. 

The structure of Apollo 11

The rocket that carried Apollo 11 was the Saturn-V, the largest rocket ever built and its stages were as follows. The first stage was S-IC (pronounced S-one-C) which used liquid oxygen and kerosene and was built by the Boeing Company. The second stage was S-II (pronounced S-two) which used liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen and was built by North American Aviation. The third stage was S-IVB (pronounced S-four-B) which too used liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen and was built by the Douglas Aircraft Company. The upper part of Apollo 11 was the actual spacecraft which again had three parts, the LM, the Service Module which would check for course corrections and for entering and exiting the lunar orbit, and the CSM. The astronauts stayed in the CSM until it was separated from the LM. After that, two of them went to the LM.  Therefore, for the safety of the astronauts on top of the CSM was the Launch Escape System which would pull the CSM away if there were any problems during the launch. All of the above-mentioned parts together created the mind-blowing Apollo 11.

Image source - Google | Image by - Vox | Armstrong's bootprint on the moon

 

Apollo 11 was a mission that would not only land humans on the moon but would also tell them that the sky is not the limit. It would pave the way for the thought that not only can we visit other heavenly bodies but also live on them. And therefore, NASA is now planning Artemis, Apollo’s sister which would try to help humanity make the moon their home…