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On July the 21st, 1969, the moon finally gave up some of the secrets man had dreamed about
for centuries. The world had been anticipating the event for months; the Americans had been
working on the moon landing for years. Now it was about to come to fulfilment, and President
Kennedy explained why. President J F Kennedy: "'Why' some say, 'the
moon?' Why choose this as our goal? Why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly
the Atlantic? We choose to go to the Moon. We choose to go to the Moon and do the other
things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard."
Three astronauts were on board Apollo 11 - Neil Armstrong, who would be the first man down,
Buzz Aldrin, who'd go with him, and Mike Collins, who'd be staying on board the spacecraft.
The climax of the Apollo mission came four days after blast off. So far the journey had
been relatively uneventful. Now they were beginning to orbit the moon itself.
Next, Armstrong and Aldrin transferred to the lunar module and fired their engine to
start their descent to the surface of the moon. After a tense few minutes, when they
had to avoid a bolder-filled crater, with their fuel running low, they were finally
down. The scientific value of the flight to the moon
may not have been particularly great. But as an exercise in what the imagination of
man can achieve with enough determination, knowledge and purpose, the moon landing was
unsurpassed.