An historical event, Apollo 11

Hello everyone!
Today I travelled to Fort Myers. Fort Myers is known for their long, beautiful beaches, so I’ve been bathing a lot today. When the sun was gone and the stars appeared, I took a night walk in the streets. I like to walk alone, watching the stars, and just think. This evening, I had the universe on my mind. How big is it? Why are there so many stars?  Are there life on other planets out there? As I trudged around with these thoughts, I decided to go to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida the next day. A very nice guide told me so much about the Apollo 11, so I learned a lot. At the evening, after the visit, I decided to walk to my hotel room and write a blog post about what I learned. I hope you think it is almost as exciting as I thought:

Apollo 11 was the spaceflight that landed the first humans on the Moon. The crew was based on three astronauts: Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin and Michael Collins. The launch found place at Kennedy Space Center 16^th of July 1969. Apollo 11 landed on the moon 20^th of July 21:17 (Norwegian time). Six and a half hour later, 21^th of July 03:56 (Norwegian time), Neil Armstrong took the ever first step on the moon. 

The launch of Apollo 11 was sent on TV over the whole world. Almost 600 million viewers watched the launch anxiously. Apollo 11 shot off with a speed of 11 kilometers per second, which corresponds to ca. 40,000 km/h. Four days later the moon landing aircraft, the Eagle, landed on the moon. Only Armstrong and Aldrin was aboard the aircraft, so they were the only ones who got the opportunity to walk on the moon. Collins manned the main aircraft, Columbia, which went into orbit around the moon. 

 

A moonwalk was completed while landing the Eagle on the lunar surface. The eagle was on the moon in more than twenty-one and a half hour. Meanwhile these hours, Armstrong and Aldrin collected dust and stones, photographed and filmed, and not to mention planted the American flag. In addition, they received a phone call from the then US President Richard Nixon.

  

The project of landing humans on the moon started ten years earlier. The Soviet Union had successfully managed to send a spaceship into orbit around the earth. The Americans were afraid that the Russians would take the lead in the race for developing spaceships and equipment to explore the universe. Therefor the president, John F. Kennedy, promised the nation to land an aircraft with humans on the moon within ten years. As we all know now, he kept his promise.

The most famous quote from the incident is the sentence Armstrong said while he was the first human to step his foot on the moon. All around the world, millions of radio-listeners and TV-viewers could hear him say: “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind”.  

  

I hope you enjoyed the blog post, at least learned something new about Apollo 11. This is unfortunately my last week here in the US, so the next post I’m going to write will also be my last one. I have to admit that I think it’s kind of sad. Have a great day!

Lots of love, Synne