On July 20, 1969 NASA's mission to land on the moon culminated with the Apollo 11 crew Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins touching down on lunar soil.
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Apollo 11 astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin Jr. salutes the U.S. flag on the surface of the moon on July 20, 1969. NASA's mission to send the first man to the moon 45 years ago set the pace for space discovery throughout the world, providing a new frontier for exploration, technology and innovation.
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Left, a pre-launch twilight photo of the the Apollo 11 Saturn V launch vehicle and right, the spacecraft lifting off from Kennedy Space Center on July 16, 1969, in Florida, carrying crew members Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin Jr.
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Apollo 11 takes off on July 16, 1969.
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Thousands of journalists line the banks of a lagoon at the Cape Kennedy press site as Apollo 11 thunders from its launchpad 3 1/2 miles away.
AP
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Former President Lyndon B. Johnson, center right, and Vice President Spiro Agnew, right, watch with the crowd as Apollo 11 lifts off.
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The Apollo 11 crew has a last briefing during its breakfast on July 16, 1969. From left, astronauts Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins listen to NASA flight crew director Donald "Deke" Slayton, right.
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Neil Armstrong, front, waves as the Apollo 11 crew heads for the van that will take them to the launchpad.
AP
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Mission officials celebrate in the Launch Control Center following Apollo 11's successful liftoff. From left, Charles Mathews, deputy associate administrator for the Office of Manned Space Flight; Wernher von Braun, director of the Marshall Space Flight Center; George Mueller, associate administrator for the Office of Manned Space Flight; and Lt. Gen. Samuel Phillips, director of the Apollo program.
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The crew of Apollo 11: from left, Neil Armstrong, commander; Michael Collins, command module pilot; and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin Jr., lunar module pilot.
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A NASA official shows the two cameras, one for black and white and one for color, that will film astronauts walking on the surface of the moon.
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A view of Earth appears over the lunar horizon as seen from Apollo 11.
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Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, the first men to land on the moon, plant the U.S. flag on the lunar surface on July 20, 1969. "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind," Armstrong famously uttered when he first stepped off the landing module.
NASA/AP
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An Apollo 11 astronaut takes a picture of his boot on the moon's surface.
NASA
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Buzz Aldrin deploys a foil sheet pointed at the sun, leaving it to "collect" rays for about 1 hour and 17 minutes before rolling it up to bring back to Earth for analysis. Also pictured are several boot prints left by Aldrin and Neil Armstrong on the moon's surface.
NASA
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One of the few photographs of Neil Armstrong on the moon shows him working on the Apollo 11 lunar module.
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Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong smiles inside the lunar module on July 20, 1969. Armstrong was born in Wapakoneta, Ohio, on Aug. 5, 1930, and passed away at age 82 on Aug. 25, 2012, in Cincinnati.
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American servicemen pause on a street in downtown Saigon, Vietnam, on July 21, 1969, to read a local newspaper account of the Apollo 11 lunar landing.
AP
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A view of the moon's Daedalus crater, or No. 308, as seen from Apollo 11.
NASA
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Buzz Aldrin walks on the moon. The astronauts explored the lunar surface for about 22 hours.
NASA/Getty Images
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A view of the moon photographed 10,000 nautical miles away from Apollo 11 on July 21, 1969, during the spacecraft's trans-Earth journey homeward.
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The lunar module approaches for a rendezvous with the command module, manned by astronaut Michael Collins, on July 21, 1969. The command module continued to orbit the moon until July 22.
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After an eight-day mission, the Apollo 11 command module lands in the Pacific Ocean on July 24, 1969, and is recovered by U.S. Navy helicopters.
AP
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U.S. Navy personnel wearing biological isolation garments arrive to recover the Apollo 11 crew. The mission was an overwhelming success in its execution of safety, science and exploration and heralded as one of the United State's crowning accomplishments.
AP
Credit:Diana Soliwon
Source: Usnews.com
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