Apollo 11: Moon Landing

At 2:12 PM EDT on July 20 the LM, with Armstrong and Aldrin on board, separated from the Command Module. At 4:17 PM, the lander was on the moon. There were two potential problems along the way. At 4:14, an alarm sounded because of a computer problem, and Mission Control considered aborting the mission. As soon as they decided that the problem was not critical, Armstrong radioed that the scheduled landing was strewn with large boulders. He took over control of the LM and began flying sideways across the lunar surface, looking for a level spot. Then a low fuel alarm sounded, but it was later determined that this was a false alarm, caused by the fuel sloshing in the tanks. Armstrong ignored the warning and continued flying, and after just two minutes he picked a spot and set the LM down. The first words from the moon were actually technical chatter about engine shutdown and the like. Once the technical details were settled and the engines off, Armstrong sent his famous message: "Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed."

The astronauts almost immediately began preparations for their moon walk, EVA in NASA parlance. The hatch was opened at 10:39 PM, and Armstrong began his descent to the surface. He paused on the ladder to take photos of the landing gear, for the engineers, and take a soil sample. Then he continued to the surface, speaking the day's second famous line, "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." He was joined by Aldrin. They took pictures, collected samples, set up the flag and two quick experiments. They practiced different ways of moving around. Then they went back to the LM.

At 1:13 AM on July 21, the hatch was closed. Armstrong and Aldrin stowed their gear and their samples, and then they were supposed to sleep. Armstrong couldn't. This famous picture of an elated Aldrin, back in the LM after the spacewalk, explains why.