Apollo 11 Moon Landing Anniversary

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — It was a defining moment in all of human history and NASA made sure that cameras were on hand to capture the spectacle and the drama.

We’ve seen these images — this one in particular — countless times during the past 34 years, but on this anniversary of the first Moon landing take a moment to look once more at the picture above and marvel at the accomplishment.
That’s a man walking on the lunar surface, and in the reflection of his visor you can see another.

Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first men to step foot on the Moon on July 20, 1969. They had launched aboard Apollo 11 with Mike Collins on July 16, and when this image was captured by Armstrong of Aldrin, a national goal of landing a man on the Moon had been accomplished.

The other part of the goal — the part about bringing them back safely to the Earth — also was met, four days later, when the trio splashed down in the Pacific Ocean riding aboard the command module named Columbia.