Neil Armstrong walking on the moon.

On July 20, 1969, astronaut Neil Armstrong did something no one had ever done before. He set foot on the moon. People around the world watched and listened as Neil slowly climbed down the ladder of the lunar lander. Then, he stepped on the moon's surface where he could look up and see Earth far above him.  There he said these well known words, "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind."

In 1960, United States President John F. Kennedy challenged NASA to land a man on the moon before the end of the decade (before 1970). The race to meet his goal was the greatest technological achievement the world has ever seen. The first ten Apollo missions were spent getting ready for the moon landing. Apollo 10 even flew all the way to the moon, around it, and back to earth without landing. Finally, everything was ready, and Apollo 11 launched, traveled to the moon, and landed.

Neil Armstrong was the first astronaut to step on the moon. He was soon joined, though, by Buzz Aldrin. The two astronauts spent 21 hours walking on the moon in their spacesuits. They also brought back 46 pounds of moon rocks. 

After their walks on the moon, they blasted off in the top part of the lunar lander. They docked with "Columbia," the Command Module. Columbia was piloted by astronaut Michael Collins and stayed in orbit around the moon waiting for Neil and Buzz. Finally, all three astronauts rode back to the earth in Columbia, and splashed down in the Atlantic ocean on July 24, 1969.

While on the moon Neil and Buzz planted a United States flag and left a sign that read:

 Source material from OFFICIAL NASA WEBSITE