Forty five years ago on July 29, 1969, the United States sent NASA mission Apollo 11 to space in what would be the nation’s first successful trip to the moon. On that mission, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to step food on the moon.
“The primary objective of Apollo 11 was to complete a national goal set by President John F. Kennedy on May 25, 1961: perform a crewed lunar landing and return to Earth,” NASA said in a release commemorating the anniversary. The flight crew, which also included astronaut Michael Collins, did just that. In the years since Apollo 11, NASA has continued to push the boundaries of space exploration.
Learn more about their history and the first moon landing here.