|
*Click here to make Kids Trends Tidbits your homepage*
Apollo 11 blasts off
Flight Day One: Blast Off for Apollo 11 on July 16, 1969
9:32 a.m. EDT- On schedule to within less than a second, Apollo 11 blasts off from Launch Pad 39A at Cape Kennedy, Florida to start what is looked upon as the greatest single step in human history-a trip to the Moon, a manned landing and return to Earth.
Watching is a world-wide television audience and an estimated million eyewitnesses. Standing three and one-half miles away on the sand flats or seated in grandstands are half the members of the United States Congress and more than 3,000 newsmen from 56 countries.
Strapped to their couches in the command module atop the 363-foot, 7.6-million-pound thrust space vehicle are three astronauts, each born in 1930, each weighing 165 pounds, all within an inch of the same height-five feet, 11 inches. They are Commander Neil A. Armstrong, civilian and ex-test pilot; Command Module Pilot Michael Collins, and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin E. (Buzz) Aldrin, Jr., the latter two, officers of the U. S. Air Force.
Email This Article
More Tidbits:
|
