Apollo 11: First Men to Walk the Moon - Part 2
The lunar module "Eagle" landed on the "Sea of Tranquility" on the Moon's soil. This area consists mostly of touchstone. It happened at 4:17 P.M. EDT. Neil Armstrong stated legendary words, "Houston, this is Tranquility Base. The Eagle has landed". The first few hours on the Moon's surface the astronauts were checking whether all systems worked right, made the actions needed to prepare to the "moonwalk" and had a mealtime. However, they were so excited that decided to cancel the 4-hour rest, planned for them after landing in order to explore the surface more.
The "Eagle" module had a camera inside that was observing all the actions and broadcasting them into the live stream. At 11:56 on the 20th of July, 1969 Neil Armstrong put the ladder down and the camera was showing it to the whole world. Then, everybody heard the cult words, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind". After twenty minutes, the next astronaut - Buzz Aldrin made the next steps on the Moon's surface. As Armstrong had to document all the activities done on the Moon, the pictures are mostly of Aldrin exploring the surface.
Being on the surface, the aim of astronauts was to collect as more samples of the lunar surface such as soil, rocks, and minerals as possible. Then they mounted a U.S. flag and gathered some other lunar crust samples. Also, they spoke with U.S. President Richard Nixon, who was in the White House and then mounted a plaque, claiming:
"HERE MEN FROM THE PLANET EARTH
FIRST SET FOOT UPON THE MOON
JULY 1969, A.D.
WE CAME IN PEACE FOR ALL MANKIND"
The astronauts also placed a few medallions with the names of the first three astronauts, burnt in the Apollo 1 fire, as well as with the names of Yuri Gagarin, and other two astronauts who had passed. Also, they placed a small silicon disc with messages of benevolence from 73 countries and with the names of NASA leaders.
Neil spent more than two hours not in the module. The total distance they've walked on the lunar surface was about 3.300 feet. During the moonwalk they visited the big crater and walked away from module on approximately 200 feet. They took more than 47 pounds of the lunar samples for scientific research on the Earth. Later, they said that the weight of samples was way easier than they expected.
Totally, they spent 21 and half hours on the lunar surface. Then, at 1:54 p.m. EDT the "Eagle" started for "Columbia" module, where the third astronaut was waiting for them. The modules docked and Armstrong with Aldrin and samples came back to the "Columbia". The "Eagle" was jettisoned into open space. The crew was coming on Earth.
On the 24th of July, at 12:50 P.M. the team hit the Pacific Ocean a few miles away from the recovery ship. The recovery ship was U.S.S. Hornet. As soon as they isolated all the materials from the Moon, the crew left the "Columbia" module and went to a saving ship. Then, they were transferred to a Mobile Quarantine Facility to ensure that their health is ok. Only then they headed to Houston. They were on quarantine up to the 10th of August. They were the first people to complete the mission to land on the Moon's surface and return home safe and sound.
