It really was 50 years ago today that this happened.
That Saturn V rocket, the most powerful vehicle ever built by man, launched three Americans, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins into history.
Nobody who watched a few days later will ever forget the words. After a period of silence, “Houston, Tranquillity Base here, the Eagle has landed.” And I’ll bet I’m far from the only human who still remembers those words verbatim. When the Eagle was descending to the Lunar surface, it was almost like the world stopped, to stare and wonder. And that too was the glory of the American space program, it was there, right there, on live television, for the whole world to watch.
We had done it, we had won another race, the first men to step on another world were Americans, and that flag would wave more or less forever in the solar wind. We had done what President Kennedy challenged us to do:
I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish. We propose to accelerate the development of the appropriate lunar space craft. We propose to develop alternate liquid and solid fuel boosters, much larger than any now being developed, until certain which is superior. We propose additional funds for other engine development and for unmanned explorations – explorations which are particularly important for one purpose which this nation will never overlook: the survival of the man who first makes this daring flight. But in a very real sense, it will not be one man going to the Moon – if we make this judgment affirmatively, it will be an entire nation. For all of us must work to put him there.
— Kennedy’s speech to the Congress
And soon they would be safely home, to be honored, and remembered for their accomplishment.
And yes, we lost some good people on the way, like the crew of Apollo 1, Command Pilot Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom, Senior Pilot Ed White, and Pilot Roger B. Chaffee burned to death in a command module fire, who should also be honored.