The Apollo 11 mission's objective was to complete a goal set by President Kennedy to perform a crewed lunar landing and return safely. The Saturn V rocket spaceship launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on July 16, 1969 carrying astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin Eugene 'Buzz' Aldrin, and Michael Collins 953,054 miles off orbit. The mission followed Mercury missions, first launched in 1961 with Alan Shepard 15-minute suborbital flight in his Freedom 7 capsule.

Apollo 11's module touched down on the lunar mare Sea of Tranquility. Armstrong notified the control center with the…