Crazy pics ! Remembering Apollo 11
| Remembering Apollo 11 |
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40 images... 40 years ago, three human beings - with the help of many thousands of others - left our planet on a successful journey to our Moon, setting foot on another world for the first time.It marks the 40th anniversary of July 16, 1969 launch of Apollo 11, with astronauts Neil A. Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin E. "Buzz" Aldrin Jr. aboard. The entire trip lasted only 8 days, the time spent on the surface was less than one day, the entire time spent walking on the moon, a mere 2 1/2 hours - but they were surely historic hours. Scientific experiments were deployed (at least one still in use today), samples were collected, and photographs were taken to document the entire journey. Collected here are 40 images from that journey four decades ago, when, in the words of astronaut Buzz Aldrin: "In this one moment, the world came together in peace for all mankind".  The view from the Apollo 11 Command and Service Module (CSM) "Columbia" shows the Earth rising above the Moon's horizon on July 20th, 1969. The lunar terrain pictured is in the area of Smyth's Sea on the nearside. (NASA)  German scientist Dr. Wernher von Braun explains the Saturn Launch System to President John F. Kennedy during a visit. NASA Deputy Administrator Robert Seamans is to the left of von Braun. (NASA) #  Astronaut Neil Armstrong on a one-day Gemini VIII mission in March of 1966. Gemini was a stepping-stone project, working toward the upcoming Apollo missions. (NASA/Space Frontiers/Getty Images) #  Astronaut Neil Armstrong, Apollo 11 mission commander, floats safely to the ground after an accident during a training session on May 6th, 1968. The Lunar Landing Research Vehicle (LLRV) exploded only seconds before while Armstrong was rehearsing a lunar landing at Ellington Air Force Base near the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC). This photo is an enlargement of a frame from a 16mm documentary motion picture recorded during the mishap. (NASA) #  Neil Armstrong (left) watches Buzz Aldrin take a documentary photo of a sample during a training session on February 24th, 1969. (NASA) #  Michael Collins works in a Command Module simulator (with an assistant beside him). (NASA) #  Neil Armstrong poses for a photograph at the Lunar Landing Research Facility at NASA Langley in Virginia on February 12, 1969. (NASA) #  An official NASA portrait of astronaut Buzz Aldrin. (NASA) #  An aerial view of the 363 foot-tall (111 m) Apollo 11 Saturn V rocket rollout from the Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Building in Florida on May 20th, 1969. (NASA) #  The Apollo 11 crew and Donald K. "Deke" Slayton look over charts during the traditional launch day breakfast of steak and eggs on July 16, 1969. (NASA) #  A technician works atop the white room, through which the astronauts will enter the spacecraft, while other technicians look on from the launch tower at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on July 11, 1969. (NASA) #  Every console was manned in firing room 1 of the Kennedy Space Flight Center (KSC) control center during the launch countdown for Apollo 11. (NASA). #  Lift-off of the Saturn V rocket, carrying astronauts Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin Jr, along with 6,700,000 pounds (3,039,000 kg) of fuel and equipment into the Florida sky, bound for the Moon, on July 16th, 1969. (NASA) #  A 70mm Airborne Lightweight Optical Tracking System (ALOTS) camera, mounted in a pod on a cargo door of a U.S. Air Force EC-135N aircraft photographed this event in the early moments of the Apollo 11 launch. The mated Saturn V second and third stages pull away from the expended first stage. Separation occurred at an altitude of about 38 miles, some 55 miles downrange from Cape Kennedy. (NASA) #  A view of Earth from orbit shortly after launch, July, 1969. (NASA) #  Lunar module pilot Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, inside the module as it makes its way toward the Moon, July, 1969. (NASA) #  Looking back over their shoulder, an Apollo astronaut takes a photograph of the Earth during the long translunar coast. The body and some thruster nozzles of the Lunar Module are visible in the foreground. (NASA) #  Most of Africa and portions of Europe and Asia can be seen in this photograph taken from the Apollo 11 spacecraft during its translunar coast toward the moon. Apollo 11 was already 98,000 nautical miles from Earth when this picture was made on July 17th, 1969. (NASA) #  Arriving and entering into Lunar orbit. Seen below are craters Sabine and Ritter, and mountains stretching back to the horizon on July 19th, 1969. (NASA) #  Looking down at the Command and Service Module (center), with the Moon's surface below, as seen from the now-separated Lunar Module (LM), on its way to the surface. The proiminent crater is Schmidt crater. This is the last photo taken from the LM prior to the powered descent, and eventually the landing one orbit later. (NASA) # |
