We Accepted the Challenge of Going to Moon… (Part I)

On Monday, 21 July 1969 Commander Neil Armstrong stepped off the ladder that led from the Eagle landing module of the Apollo 11 spacecraft and onto the surface of the moon. As he did so, he spoke the words that have since become famous: ‘That’s one small step for man – one giant leap for mankind. Edwin Aldrin joined him on the Moon, where they placed a plaque and an American flag. They also planted some seeds and collected rock samples. President Nixon spoke to them live via radio during their historic moonwalk. A few days later, with the Earth still some 118,000 miles away, Armstrong, Aldrin and Michael Collins switched on their colour television camera and made their last transmission from space which is given below.

ARMSTRONG: A hundred years ago, Jules Verne wrote a book about a voyage to the Moon. His spaceship Columbia, took off from Florida and landed in the Pacific Ocean after completing a trip to the Moon. It seems appropriate to us to share with you some of the reflections of the crew as the modern day Columbia completes its rendezvous with the planet Earth in the same Pacific Ocean tomorrow. The responsibility of this flight lies first with history and with the giants of science who preceded this effort. Next with the American people who have, through their will, indicated their desire. Next, four administration and their congresses for implementing that will, and then to the (space) agency and industry teams that built our spacecraft: the Saturn, the Columbia, the Eagle and the little EMU (extravehicular mobility unit), the spacesuit and backpack that was our small spacecraft out on the lunar surface. We’d like to give a special thanks to all those American who built those spacecraft, who did the construction, designed the tests and out their hearts and all their abilities into those craft. To those people, tonight we give a special thank you, and to all the other people that are listening and watching tonight, God bless you (To be continued…)