The First Lunar Landing

On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11s lunar module Eagle plunged toward the moon. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin faced toward the surface, traveling feet first. As a camera in Aldrins window shows, Armstrong executed a maneuver, at the 50-second mark in this video, putting their backs to the surface, followed by a gradual pitch up to vertical for touchdown. Later, Armstrong is seen descending the ladder onto the surface. For the next two hours the men set up experiments, planted an American flag, and cavorted in the one-sixth gravity. They spent another 12 hours in the lander, took video through the windows, and slept fitfully. Less than 24 hours after arrival, they returned to orbit, having claimed the loftiest perch in the pantheon of air and space: First humans to walk on the moon. Video: NASA (3:00)

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In this clip from the 1967 Soviet movie A Cruise to the Stars, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin is shown training for his historic mission as engineers test various systems of the Vostok capsule. Accepting the task before him, Gagarin tells space officials that if he encounters any difficulties in space, I will overcome them as the communists do. On launch day, April 12, 1961, Chief Designer Sergei Korolev radios his best wishes as Gagarin takes off. After his 108-minute flight, Gagarin becomes an international sensation, with parades and celebrations in his honor.A Cruise to the Stars, which runs 52 minutes, was made to commemorate the first 10 years of the Soviet space program. We do not consider the conquest of space as the achievement of only our people but as that of all mankind, the narrator says. We happily place it at the disposal of all nations and peoples in the name of progress, happiness, and welfare of all men.

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