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Apollo 11 astronauts returning to launch pad 50 years later

Author: Associated Press
Published: Updated:
In this July 20, 1969 image made from television, Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong steps onto the surface of the moon. Millions on Earth who gathered around the TV and radio heard Armstrong say this: “That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” But after returning from space, he immediately insisted that he had been misquoted. He said there was a lost word in his famous one-liner from the moon: “That's one small step for ‘a' man." It's just that people just didn't hear it.” (NASA via AP)
In this July 20, 1969 image made from television, Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong steps onto the surface of the moon. Millions on Earth who gathered around the TV and radio heard Armstrong say this: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” But after returning from space, he immediately insisted that he had been misquoted. He said there was a lost word in his famous one-liner from the moon: “That’s one small step for ‘a’ man.” It’s just that people just didn’t hear it.” (NASA via AP)

Apollo 11’s astronauts are returning to the exact spot from where they flew to the moon 50 years ago.

NASA has invited Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins to Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A on Tuesday. They will mark the precise moment – 9:32 a.m. on July 16, 1969 – that their Saturn V rocket departed on humanity’s first moon landing. Mission commander Neil Armstrong – who took the first lunar footsteps – died in 2012.

It kicks off eight days of golden anniversary celebrations for each day of Apollo 11’s voyage.

Also Tuesday morning, 5,000 model rockets launched launch simultaneously at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. At the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, Armstrong’s newly restored spacesuit goes on display.

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