Allunaggio

Apollo 11 was the space mission that first brought the men to the moon, the Americans Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, on 20 July 1969 at 20:18 UTC. Armstrong was the first to set foot on lunar soil, six hours later than the landing, on 21 July at 02.56 UTC. Armstrong spent two and a half hours outside the spacecraft, Aldrin a little less. Together they collected 21.5 kg of lunar material which they brought back to Earth. A third member of the mission, Michael Collins, remained in lunar orbit, piloting the Command module that brought the astronauts back home. The mission ended on July 24, with landing in the Pacific Ocean. Launched by a Saturn V rocket from the Kennedy Space Center, on July 16, Apollo 11 was the fifth manned mission of NASA's Apollo program. The Apollo spacecraft consisted of three parts: a Command Module (CM) that housed the three astronauts and was the only part that fell to Earth, a service module (SM), which provided the propulsion command module, electricity, oxygen and water, and a Lunar Module (LM) for landing on the Moon. The first lunar walk was broadcast live on television for a worldwide audience. Armstrong when he put his foot on the lunar surface described the event as: («That's one small step for [a] man, but [a] giant leap for mankind. » (IT) "This is a small step for a man, but a great leap for humanity. » (Neil Armstrong) Apollo 11 concluded the race for space undertaken by the United States and the Soviet Union, realizing the national goal proposed in 1961 by US President John F. Kennedy in a speech before the United States Congress in which he stated that "this country must commit to achieving the goal, before this decade ends, of landing a man on the moon and returning him to Earth safely.