On July 20, 1969, American astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the moon. The Apollo 11 mission was the pinnacle of NASA’s decade long efforts to conquer space flight. It occurred just eight years after President John F. Kennedy announced a national goal of landing a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s.
Lake Effect's astronomy contributor Jean Creighton has been thinking about everything that had to be invented and perfected in order for that landing to happen.
"This was monumental. You can think of a really, really tall building and that's how big the Saturn V stands. Not to mention that it would burn hundreds of thousands of gallons of fuel a minute," says Creighton.
Creighton is the director of the Manfred Olson Planetarium, located on the UW-Milwaukee Campus.
