PowerPoint Show by Andrew

July 16, 1969, the launch of Apollo 11, the NASA mission that first landed human beings on the Moon. Years of effort, dangerous experiments, and bold missions led up to the Moon landing, an event watched on live television by millions around the world.

Astronauts Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Edwin "Buzz" E. Aldrin left the Earth on a Wednesday, landed on the Moon on that Sunday, spent a bit more than two hours walking on its surface, deploying experiments and collecting samples, then splashed down safely in the Pacific Ocean the following Thursday, after 8 days off-planet.

Neil A. Armstrong

Michael Collins

Edwin E. "Buzz" Aldrin Jr.

The Saturn V rocket rollout for the Apollo 11 mission on May 20, 1969.

The Apollo 11 crew and Donald K. "Deke" Slayton at the traditional launch day steak and eggs breakfast on July 16, 1969.

A technician works atop the white room, through which the astronauts will enter the spacecraft, on July 11, 1969.

Neil Armstrong waving in front, and the crew or Apollo 11, head for the van that will take the crew to the rocket.

Neil Armstrong just before the launch.

Launch of Apollo 11, on July 16, 1969. Fully fueled for liftoff, the Saturn V weighed 2.8 million kilograms (6.2 million pounds) -- and generated 34.5 million newtons (7.6 million pounds) of thrust at launch.

US Vice President Spiro Agnew and former US President Lyndon B. Johnson, in a crowd watching the liftoff of the Apollo 11 mission at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on July 16, 1969.

Apollo 11 launch as viewed from an Air Force EC-135N plane.

A view of Earth showing clouds over water was photographed from the Apollo 11 spacecraft following translunar injection.

Interior view of the Apollo 11 Lunar Module showing Astronaut Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr., lunar module pilot, during the lunar landing mission.

View of lunar module and Earth beyond during the three-day trip to the Moon.

Mrs. Jan Armstrong registers pleasure over a picture of her husband, Apollo 11 commander, Neil Armstrong, taken during a telecast from the spacecraft and beamed back to earth, on July 18, 1969.

Reaching lunar orbit, a view of the surface west of Daedalus Crater.

A view from the Apollo 11 spacecraft showing Earth rising above the moon's horizon.

Spacecraft communicators keep in contact with the Apollo 11 astronauts during their lunar landing mission on July 20, 1969.

The Apollo 11 Lunar Module (LM) "Eagle", in a landing configuration is photographed in lunar orbit from the Command and Service Modules (CSM) "Columbia". Inside the LM were Commander, Neil A. Armstrong, and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin E. "Buzz" Aldrin Jr. The long "rod-like" protrusions under the landing pods are lunar surface sensing probes. Upon contact with the lunar surface, the probes send a signal to the crew to shut down the descent engine.

View from LM (Armstrong's window) of craters Messier & Messier A.

Neil Armstrong steps on surface of the moon on July 20, 1969.

A bootprint of the first steps taken on the Moon.

In Paris,France, a family watches Neil Armstrong setting his foot on the moon.

Neil Armstrong's first photo, after setting foot on the Moon.

A shallow crater near the Lunar Module.

Buzz Aldrin salutes the deployed United States flag during the Apollo 11 Extravehicular Activity on the lunar surface.

People in New York's Central Park watch as Apollo 11 lands on the moon.

Aldrin unpacks experiments from the lunar module.

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin carries experiments for deployment.

Aldrin assembles the Passive Seismic Experiment Package, a device left to measure moonquakes.

Lunar module ascent stage, still on the Moon's surface, with Earth seen overhead.

Neil Armstrong, back in the lunar module, after his historic moonwalk.

After liftoff from the Moon, the lunar module approaches CSM for docking, with earthrise in background.

View of full lunar disc during the return trip.

Earth grows larger in the windows of the Command Module Columbia during the return trip of Apollo 11.

Apollo 11 crew boarding a recovery helicopter after a successful splashdown on July 24, 1969.

President Richard M. Nixon was in the central Pacific recovery area to welcome the Apollo 11 astronauts aboard the U.S.S. Hornet.

New Yorkers cheer Apollo 11 astronauts on August 13, 1969.

Astronaut Neil Armstrong, his wife, Jan and sons, Ricky and Mark, are engulfed by ticker tape as they ride down Houston's Main Street in a parade honoring the astronauts in Houston, Texas, on August 16, 1969.