Neil Armstrong (1930- ) was the first human to set foot on the moon. Neil Armstrong was the commander of the first Apollo program mission to land on the moon—Apollo 11—in July 1969. He also flew aboard a Gemini program mission in 1966.

In 1968 he was assigned the position of commander for the Apollo 11 mission, joined by Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin and Michael Collins. The mission objective for Apollo 11 was simply to take humans to the moon and return safely. Apollo 11’s mission patch is the only mission patch in NASA history to have no individual names on it. A plaque mounted on one leg of the lunar module, the part of the Apollo spacecraft that landed on the moon, bears a map of the earth, the signatures of President Richard Nixon and all three astronauts, and the inscription, "Here men from the planet earth first set foot upon the moon July 1969 A.D. We came in peace for all mankind."

Apollo 11 launched on July 16, 1969, and arrived in orbit around the moon on July 20. On the 14th orbit of the moon, following eight hours of preparation for the landing, the lunar module Eagle descended toward the Mare Tranquillitatis (Sea of Tranquility). Armstrong began actively piloting the Eagle when the craft was about 1500 m (about 5000 ft) above the moon and 6 km (4 mi) east of the landing target, maneuvering to avoid boulders in the landing zone. The Eagle touched down on the moon’s surface very gently about three hours after separating from the Columbia. Armstrong and Aldrin prepared the Eagle for immediate liftoff in case of emergency, ate a meal, skipped a planned rest period, and began getting ready to go out onto the lunar surface.

At 10:56 PM Eastern Daylight Time Neil Armstrong became the first human being to set foot on the moon, pronouncing one of the most famous quotes of the 20th century: "That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." Aldrin emerged less than 15 minutes later. Armstrong and Aldrin worked on the lunar surface for about 2 hours and 30 minutes. Their work included the collection of 48 lbs (22 kg) of rock samples and setting up a solar wind experiment, a seismometer to detect moonquakes, and a laser reflector. The laser reflector reflected pulses of laser light fired from the earth. This allowed scientists to make very accurate measurements of the distance between the earth and the moon. Eagle lifted off and rejoined Columbia after just 21 hours and 30 minutes on the lunar surface. The Apollo 11 crew returned to Earth on July 24, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean about about 810 mi (1300 km) southeast of Hawaii. The crew spent a long time in biological quarantine to ensure they had not brought any contaminants back to the earth.

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