40 years ago, a fledgling NASA achieved something that many thought impossible: in less than a decade from President John F. Kennedy's "We choose to go to the moon" directive, American astronauts walked on the moon.
Apollo 11 streaks past an American flag in this NASA archival photograph. Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins were headed for history as humankind took their first steps on another heavenly body.
The massive Saturn V rocket lifted off at 9:32 a.m. EDT July 16 from Florida's Kennedy Space Center. On July 20, the tiny Eagle landing craft separated from the mother ship Columbia.
At 4:17 p.m. EDT the famous radio call: "Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed." Six hours later, people around the world watched grainy, flickering black-and-white images as Armstrong took the first step on the moon.
For the anniversary, NASA restored some original footage. These films are clearer and sharper because they are not filtered through NASA's then-TV broadcast system, which involved a complicated transmittal system that wound up filming a screen playing tapes, then broadcasting the video of the compressed and several-times transmitted video.
Note: the live stream is courtesy of SpaceVidcast. The programming will change throughout the day as NASA switches to coverage of the current STS-127 Endeavour mission to the International Space Station.
In addition, NASA is airing a live retrospective of Apollo 11, with various history clips. The programming is by NASA TV.
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