Apollo 11 - We Came in Peace for All Mankind

Apollo 11 roared into the sky at 9:32 a.m. July 16, 1969, as millions cheered around the world. Soaring away from the Kennedy Space Center were three American astronauts, Cmdr. Neil Armstrong, Lunar Module Pilot Buzz Aldrin, and Command Module Pilot Michael Collins (no relation to the author). Armstrong, from Ohio, graduated from Purdue and the University of Southern California and flew 78 combat missions for the Navy during the Korean War. Collins, born in Rome, Italy, was a West Point graduate who set a world altitude record and walked in space during the Gemini 10 mission. Aldrin, from New Jersey, studied at West Point, earned a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and did critical research on the engineering problem of rendezvous of spacecraft in orbit.

After a flight of 75.5 hours to the moon, the spacecraft entered moon orbit. Approximately 25 hours later, the lunar module disengaged from the command module and began its descent to the surface. On Earth, people from various walks of life watched and prayed nothing would go wrong, spellbound by the new images from the moon. They celebrated as the astronauts touched down on the moon after a 2 hour and 45 minute descent.

On July 20, 1969, Armstrong stepped from the lunar module to the moon and proclaimed, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." With that step, he fulfilled John F. Kennedy's 1961 promise to put an American on the moon within the decade. He also fulfilled Jules Verne's science fiction vision in the book "From the Earth to the Moon" (1865). Aldrin followed Armstrong and later walked on the surface.

The astronauts spent 21 hours and 36 minutes on the surface before ascending to moon orbit to rendezvous with the command module. The crew returned to Earth and safely splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on July 24, 1969.

What many do understand about the space program is its diplomatic importance. Wernher von Braun, leader of the team that built the Saturn V rocket that flew the men into space, was formerly with the German military during World War II. After the war, many people who served in either the German and American military beat their swords into plowshares and dedicated themselves to the peaceful exploration of space. It is better than resorting to the ape-like impulse to fight conflicts like World War II again, and it explains why the three astronauts came from military backgrounds.

On a shoestring budget, the space agency gives humanity priceless science, such as the discovery of abundant water in other parts of the solar system. Europa, for instance, holds over twice the water of Earth in a subterranean ocean. With a bit of luck, they will continue their peaceful quests in space.