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landing on the moon
first landing on the moon
It was July 20, 1969. Three American astronauts were waiting in a spaceship called Apollo 11.
The astronauts were Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin and Michael Collins .they were sitting on the top of the rocket that was 36 -storey high. The astronauts’ were about to go on a great journey. Their destination was the moon, a quarter of a million miles away.
The final countdown began, five....four...three... two...one. Then the rockets and blasted off into the outer space. They traveled at a great speed. Just 76 hours later they were orbiting the moon. After a while two of the astronauts’ Armstrong and aldrin, left their spaceship in a lunar landing craft and prepared to land on the moon. Armstrong was the first to climb out and step down. As his left foot touched the rough surface on the moon, he said, that is one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.
It was for the first time that man was walking on the moon. Just after 20 minutes aldrin followed Armstrong and stepped on the moon. Both astronauts explored the area surrounding the landing craft. Then they took pictures, set up scientific equipment and collected of collected sixty pounds of rocks and moon soil. They also set a television camera on the moon so that the whole world could watch.
While they were busy with these activities, the third astronaut, Michael Collins, was in the main ship which was going round and round the moon .He was waiting for them to return. Armstrong and aldrin spent 21 hours and 36 minutes on the moon. Then they boarded the landing craft and lifted off. They returned safely to the spaceship. Collins, who was waiting anxiously for them, must have felt relieved. As the astronauts completed their mission, they were now ready to begin their return journey. They checked and double checked all the equipment and found everything working normally. Next they fired another rocket, came out of the lunar and headed back to earth. On the way they were faced with no problem. On July 24 Apollo 11 splashed down about 1430 kilometers southwest of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean. The astronauts came 150 miles out of the spaceship, smiling broadly. They were hailed as heroes. They will certainly go down in history. Millions of people in many countries of the world watched their adventure on television. They were thrilled.
The moon has always been a fascinating heavenly body and man has always dreamt of setting foot on it. It was on july20, 1969 that the dream came true. But before that happened a lot of preparations and a lot of experiments had gone into making it possible. The difficulties were great and the expense was astronomical. But all difficulties were overcome and no expense was spared. It seems that there is nothing impossible for man.