歷史今天:1969年阿波羅登月

"That's one smAll step for a man, and one giant leap for mankind."

The Apollo 11 mission was the first manned mission to land on the Moon. It was the fifth human spaceflight of Project Apollo and the third human voyage to the Moon. Launched on July 16, 1969, it carried Mission Commander Neil Alden Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins, and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin Eugene 'Buzz' Aldrin, Jr. On July 20, Armstrong and Aldrin became the first humans to land on the Moon, while Collins orbited above.

The mission fulfilled President John F. Kennedy's goal of reaching the moon by the end of the 1960s, which he had expressed during a speech given before a joint session of Congress on May 25, 1961: "I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth."

阿波羅11的任務是第一次載人飛行登月任務。這是第五次阿波羅載人航天計劃，也是第三人類的探月旅行。1969年7月16日，奧爾登特派團指揮官尼爾·阿姆斯特朗，航空艙試驗官邁克爾·柯林斯和登月艙駕駛員埃德溫·尤金·奧爾德林共同啓程飛向月球。7月20日，阿姆斯特朗和奧爾德林成爲登陸月球第一人，而柯林斯並沒有走出登月艙。

此次登月任務完成了約翰肯尼迪總統在1961年5月25日美國國會聯合會議上提出的目標--在20世紀60年代末到達月球。他在會議上指出：“我相信我們的國家應該能夠實現這個目標，在這十年結束之前，人類能夠登月成功並能夠安全返回。 ”