A close-up of the lunar surface reveals pebbles, dust, and Buzz Aldrin’s boot. Aldrin took this photograph after taking his iconic footprint image.
A May 1969 National Geographic photograph shows Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Buzz Aldrin standing near their spacecraft at Cape Kennedy.
Waving at the front of the line, astronaut Neil Armstrong heads for the van that will take the Apollo 11 crew to the rocket for launch at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Armstrong commanded the Apollo 11 spacecraft that landed on the moon on July 20, 1969, and radioed back to Earth the historic news of “one giant leap for mankind.”
Reflected in a pond, the Apollo 11 spacecraft sits high atop the Saturn V rocket on its launch pad on July 15, 1969, the eve of its historic mission to the moon.
Joan Aldrin, wife of Apollo 11 lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin, talks with reporters at her home on July 17, 1969, the day after the mission's successful launch.
A crowd gathers on Cocoa Beach to watch the Apollo 11 mission blast off from Cape Kennedy (now called Cape Canaveral) at 9:32 a.m. ET, aboard a Saturn V rocket. In use until 1973, the Saturn V is still the most powerful rocket that has ever flown.
Janet Armstrong reacts to a picture of her husband, Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong, that was taken during a telecast from the spacecraft and beamed back to Earth on July 18, 1969. The couple's six-year-old son, Mark, sits in the back seat of the car.
This view of Earth rising over the moon's horizon was taken from the Apollo 11 spacecraft while in lunar orbit. The terrain pictured is in the area of Smuth's Sea, on the lunar near side.
Thousands of passengers and workers at John F. Kennedy Airport’s International Arrivals Building in New York watch a television in awe as a U.S. flag is raised on the moon in July 1969.
Spectators hang out around campsites in Cape Kennedy, Florida, in July 1969 awaiting the Apollo 11 launch.
From left to right, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Buzz Aldrin talk to then U.S. President Richard Nixon through the window of their Mobile Quarantine Facility aboard the U.S.S. Hornet after returning from their historic lunar mission.
Amid a crowd of spectators, former U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson and his wife Lady Bird Johnson watch Apollo 11 lift off from Cape Kennedy on July 16, 1969, alongside then Vice President Spiro Agnew.
Leaving behind a massive trail of flame, the powerful Saturn V rocket launches toward the moon from Kennedy Space Centre in Florida on July 16, 1969.
Six-year-old Mark Armstrong, son of Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong, holds the morning newspaper at the family home in Houston, Texas, on July 20, 1969. The headline announces the mission's highly anticipated moon landing and the historic spacewalk that would make his father forever famous.
Photographed from the command module while in orbit, the Apollo 11 lunar module floats above the moon with Earth in partial shadow in the distance. This image is often said to be remarkable as it contains within it every human being that has ever lived – except Michael Collins, who took the shot.
Pat Collins (left), wife of Apollo 11 command module pilot Michael Collins, stands with the couple's three children—Mike, 6; Ann, 7; and Kathleen, 10—on the lawn of their family home in Houston, Texas, after the mission's successful launch on July 16, 1969.
The Apollo 11 command module is hoisted aboard the U.S.S. Hornet, the prime recovery vessel for the historic Apollo 11 lunar landing mission. The splashdown took place at 11:49 a.m. local time on July 24, 1969, about 812 nautical miles southwest of Hawaii.
Astronaut Buzz Aldrin walks on the surface of the moon near a leg of the Eagle lunar module in this photograph taken by astronaut Neil Armstrong. While Armstrong and Aldrin explored the moon’s Sea of Tranquility region, astronaut Michael Collins remained with the Command and Service Module Columbia in lunar orbit.
U.S. servicemen pause in Saigon on July 21, 1969, to read a local newspaper account of the Apollo 11 lunar landing. From left to right, the group includes U.S. Air Force Sgt. Michael Chiavaris, U.S. Army Spec. 4 Andrew Hutchins, Air Force Sgt. John Whalin, and Army Spec. 4 Lloyd Newton.
Women watch as the Apollo 11 mission launches from Cape Kennedy on July 16, 1969.
Dressed in their flight suits, the Apollo 11 crew members walk toward the spacecraft at sunrise on July 16, 1969.
Following their return to Earth, Apollo 11 astronauts Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, and Michael Collins visit the Manned Spaceflight Center (later named the Johnson Space Center) in Houston, Texas. The astronauts are standing with the Apollo training capsule in which they underwent water egress training in the Gulf of Mexico.
With a mockup of the lunar module in the background, the Apollo 11 astronauts run through a full dress rehearsal at a NASA training facility. In the foreground, astronaut Neil Armstrong sets up an S-band antenna. Behind him, astronaut Buzz Aldrin collects samples of simulated lunar surface material.
Astronaut Neil Armstrong stands with a moon landing research vehicle at Edwards Air Force Base in California in 1964.
Astronaut Buzz Aldrin exits the Eagle lunar module as he prepares to take his historic walk on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission.
Mothers and children huddle on Pier 92 in New York City to read the Daily News. On the front page, Neil Armstrong’s now famous quote reads: “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin erect a U.S. flag on the surface of the moon during the Apollo 11 mission. This image was captured by a TV camera mounted on the side of the Apollo 11 lunar module.
Outside the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, Japan, a group of cabaret dancers and their manager cheer for the successful July 20, 1969, landing of the Apollo 11 lunar module.
Jan Armstrong, wife of Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong, sits with a model of Apollo 11's lunar module, the Eagle, during her husband's historic mission.
People crowd in front of a TV shop in Berlin, Germany, to watch the start of the Apollo 11 space mission on June 16, 1969.
NASA officials join the flight controllers at the Manned Spaceflight Center in Houston, Texas, in celebrating the conclusion of the Apollo 11 mission in late July 1969.
Joan Aldrin, Pat Collins, and Janet Armstrong (left to right) sit on barstools and pose for a picture at the Aldrin home in Houston, Texas, during their husbands' Apollo 11 moon mission. They have their hands over their eyes, mouth, and ears in an imitation of the proverbial Three Wise Monkeys.
Joan Aldrin speaks on the phone to her husband, Buzz, while he gazes out from the Apollo 11 Mobile Quarantine Facility aboard the U.S.S. Hornet in July 1969. The astronauts spent 21 days in quarantine as a precautionary measure. This procedure, which scientists ultimately deemed unnecessary when the moon proved to be barren of life, was dropped after the Apollo 14 mission two years later.
Astronaut Neil Armstrong’s shadow stretches across the moon toward the lunar module, the Eagle. “Crosses on each picture enable geologists to make precise photogrammetric measurements of all objects recorded,” reads the caption for this picture published in the December 1969 issue of National Geographic.
The cover of the December 1969 issue of National Geographic magazine featured a now iconic picture of Buzz Aldrin standing on the moon, with mission commander Neil Armstrong reflected in his helmet visor. Further explore the past and future of moon travel in National Geographic’s July 2019 cover story.
Englishman Jonathan Bosley stands on a London street dressed as an Apollo 11 astronaut in September 1969. Bosley was asked to wear the suit while on his way to Brussels to illustrate a lecture being given by Harry Thomas of U.K. fabric manufacturer Courtaulds called “Textiles in Space Travel.”
New Yorkers line 42nd Street to cheer the Apollo 11 astronauts on August 13, 1969. Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins, and Neil Armstrong ride in the lead car and return the greetings with waves.
Astronaut Buzz Aldrin sets up a seismic unit—a tool used to measure “moonquakes”—on the lunar surface. The caption for this photograph published in the December 1969 issue of National Geographic says that the solar-powered device is “four seismometers in one” and “has nuclear heaters to help it withstand frigid lunar nights.”
In Tokyo, a Japanese family watches a live television broadcast of the Apollo 11 astronauts saluting from the moon on July 21, 1969.
Astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins greet their wives from the Mobile Quarantine Facility aboard the U.S.S. Hornet aircraft carrier, which picked them up after splashdown about 812 nautical miles southwest of Hawaii. The astronauts were quarantined for several days after landing as a precautionary measure, to ensure there was no spread of any potential germs picked up on the moon.
The three Apollo 11 astronauts pose with their families on a model of the moon in March 1969, ahead of the mission's July 16 launch. Pictured are astronaut Michael Collins and his wife Pat with their children Mike, Kate, and Ann at the top; astronaut Buzz Aldrin, his wife Joan, and their children Mike, Jan, and Andy at left; and astronaut Neil Armstrong and his wife Jan with children Ricky and Mark to the right.
Rain-soaked New Yorkers watch TV and cheer as they see Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong take his first step on the lunar surface late on July 20, 1969.
Joan Aldrin, wife of Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin, watches her husband's moon mission at home on live television while their 11-year-old daughter, Jan, sleeps.
In New York City's Central Park, a crowd watches on an open-air screen as the Apollo 11 crew lands on the moon in July 1969.
Still aboard the Apollo 11 spacecraft, astronaut Michael Collins shaves his face prior to splashdown on July 24, 1969.
After returning to Earth on July 24, 1969, the Apollo 11 Command Module Columbia floats in the ocean as U.S. Navy divers assist the astronauts.
After an eight-day mission on the moon, the Apollo 11 command module landed in the Pacific Ocean before being safely recovered by U.S. Navy helicopters on July 24, 1969.
Still covered from head to toe, the Apollo 11 astronauts wave as they enter the Mobile Quarantine Facility aboard the U.S.S. Hornet shortly after splashdown on July 24, 1969.<
Astronaut Buzz Aldrin prepares to deploy two components of the Early Apollo Scientific Experiments Package on the surface of the moon. The Passive Seismic Experiments Package is in his left hand, and the Laser Ranging Retro-Reflector is in his right. Astronaut Neil Armstrong took this photograph using a 70mm camera.