Commandeered by Neil Armstrong, the Apollo 11 mission was a spaceflight that landed the first two people on the Moon. Following the “Cold War” between the United States and the Soviet Union, and the successful launch of Sputnik 1 by the Soviets, the first artificial satellite, came the “Space Race” between the two nations.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower responded to the challenge by creating the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and prioritizing launching a man into space. However, even with the increased efforts on his part, the first person to ever be launched into space was Yuri Gagarin.
As such, when John F. Kennedy stepped into his president role, he took it upon himself to arise to the challenge. With a plan in motion, they focused their efforts into a project that would put the man on moon and get him back to Earth in one piece. The project’s name was “Apollo”.
Apollo 11 the Successful Launch
The project had been postponed with the Apollo 1 fire that happened on January 27, 1967. However, it was not the end. With continued testing, and several other teams working on it, it was ready for launch on July 16, 1969. During the launch, an estimation of one million spectators were on the highways and beaches next to the site to watch the rocket take off with the astronauts inside.
The Saturn V rocket propelled them into Earth’s orbit and a few days later, the astronauts were descending onto the Moon. Accosted with several computer errors, they were urged by the computer engineer Jack Garman to continue descent and that it was safe to land. The problems had been due to the amounts of tasks the computer had had to finish in a short amount of time. In short, it could not keep up and thus it relayed error messages, however, it did not impact their mission.
With everyone on Earth having their fingers crossed, the Apollo 11 crew made it onto the Moon’s surface. They set a plaque that had been previously signed by the president and the astronauts to set there as their first memory of the event, all the while being transmitted to Earth for people to watch live from their television screens.
Moon Departure and Quarantine
Aldrin and Armstrong managed to meet back up with the Eagle spaceship and then continued their descent back to Earth with Collins, who, during their ascent on the lunar surface, had kept watch over Eagle in their absence. In their landing, they crashed upside down, however, they were able to rectify that with the flotation bags activated by the astronauts.
The Astronauts were given biological isolation garments and assisted them in getting out of Columbia. With the possibility of bringing back pathogens from the lunar surface, they were scrubbed with sodium hypochlorite and then were taken to Hornet, where they began their 21 days of quarantine.
During their quarantine, they got a visit from the president of the United States, Richard Nixon, who wanted to congratulate the crew on the mission and welcomed them back home. After three weeks in confinement, the astronauts were released and then reigned in on the celebrations and success.
