P10mile2

The First Moon Landing

By Michael

In May 1961, Alan Shepard was the first American in space.

After Alan Shepard¹s successful flight, President Kennedy promised
that before 1970 the United States would have a man on the
moon. On July 20, 1969, his promise came true.

On the moon, the astronauts put up an American flag with

wires in it so it would look like it was blowing in the wind.
They also did many different scientific experiments, collected
moon rocks and moon dust. The astronauts spent about three
hours on the moon and then got ready to rejoin with the
command module to go home. Altogether, they were on the
moon about 21 hours. On July 24th, the astronauts came
back to the earth safely. People around the world cheered
and shook their heads in amazement!

The astronauts were Neil Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldren, and

Michael Collins. The astronauts flew in a Saturn V rocket. The
Saturn V rocket had three different stages. The first and
second stage consisted of an engine and fuel and when the
fuel was burned up the stage dropped away. The third stage is
where the astronauts and their equipment were located. It had
only one engine and a small amount of fuel.

The third stage separated into two, the command module

called Columbia, named for Christopher Columbus, and the
lunar module (LM) called Eagle. The two modules connected
with an automatic air lock so the astronauts could move
between the modules. Eagle landed on the moon and the
command module orbited the moon.

When the Eagle got to the moon, it was rocky and there were

craters where they were going to land. Neil Armstrong had to
find a safe place to land with barely any fuel left. Armstrong
had to fly the LM manually to the landing site. When they
landed Aldrin said, "Contact light" then radioed mission control
and said, "The Eagle has landed". Six hours after they
landed Armstrong got out of the Eagle, and when he got to
the surface of the moon he said the famous line "That¹s one
small step for a manŠ. One giant leap for mankind."