When was the first moon landing?

Who was the first person to walk on the Moon?

• After World War Two ended, the USA and the USSR (Russia) started competing with each other to explore space.

• In 1969 Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the Moon.

• The Mission was called Apollo 11.

Watch: Astronaut Neil Armstrong walks on the moon.

What was Apollo 11?

• President John F. Kennedy wanted to put a man on the moon.
• Apollo 11 was the name of the mission that landed on the Moon in July 1969.
• It used Saturn rockets to launch, made by Wernher von Braun.

• The first person to walk on the Moon was Neil Armstrong.
• The second person was Buzz Aldrin.
• They spent 2 hours 31 minutes walking on the surface of the Moon.
• Armstrong and Aldrin took photographs and sent live television pictures back to earth.
• As Neil Armstrong stepped onto the Moon, he said, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

What happened after Apollo 11?

• There were five more landings on the Moon after Apollo 11.
• The last landing on the Moon was in 1972 (Apollo 17).
• NASA began a Space Shuttle programme in 1972
• In 1998 the International Space Station was launched.

Did you know?

• Only 12 people have ever walked on the Moon.
• It would take you over nine years to walk to the Moon.
• A typical tablet or mobile phone has many more times the memory than the computers that put the Apollo 11 on the Moon.
• In 1957 the USSR sent a dog called Laika into space, in Sputnik 2.

Activity: Quiz – Moon landings