Three astronauts make history
Three astronauts make history
When the three astronauts, Neil Armstrong (left), Michael Collins (centre) and Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin – all born in 1930 – were selected for the Apollo 11 mission in January 1969, it was not yet clear that the mission planned for July of that year would land on the Moon. In the first half of the year, Apollo 9 was used to test the handling of the newly completed Lunar Module in Earth orbit. This was before Apollo 10 succeeded in a dress rehearsal in May – but not without a difficult situation after the descent of the lunar module to 15 kilometres above the lunar surface, when the Lunar Module unexpectedly rolled and turned over several times. After the safe return of Apollo 10, the way was clear for the first Moon landing in July 1969.
