At 12:51 EDT on July 24, 1969, Apollo 11, the U.S. spacecraft that
had taken the first astronauts to the surface of the moon, safely
returned to Earth.

The American effort to send astronauts to the moon had its origins
in a famous appeal President John F. Kennedy made to a special
joint session of Congress on May 25, 1961: “I believe 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
Earth.”

At 10:56 p.m. EDT, astronaut Neil Armstrong, 240,000 miles from
Earth, speaks these words to more than a billion people listening
at home: “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”      

Buzz Aldrin, lunar module pilot, descends the
steps of the Lunar Module ladder.

Buzz Aldrin salutes the deployed United States flag.

At 9:32 a.m. EDT, Apollo 11, the first U.S. lunar landing mission,
was launched on a historic journey to the surface of the moon.

After traveling 240,000 miles in 76 hours, Apollo 11 entered into
a lunar orbit on July 19.

From left: Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, the Apollo 11 crew.

With the world anxiously watching, Apollo 13, a U.S. lunar
spacecraft that suffered a severe malfunction on its journey
to the moon, safely returns to Earth on April 17, 1970.

On April 11, the third manned lunar landing mission was
launched from Florida, carrying astronauts James A. Lovell,
John L. Swigert and Fred W. Haise. The mission was headed f
or a landing on the Fra Mauro highlands of the moon. However,
two days into the mission, disaster struck 200,000 miles from
Earth when oxygen tank No. 2 blew up in the spacecraft.

TIM MAGUIRE

The Saturn V SA-508 rocket carrying the Apollo 13
mission really did blast off at 14:13 (military time
for 2:13 p.m., ET) from the Kennedy Space Center
in Florida—and in Houston (CT),