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How Apollo 11 Impacted Future Technology

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How Apollo 11 Impacted Future Technology

Gabriel Christian
Honors World History
October 23, 2015

It was on July 20, 1969 that Neil Armstrong first stepped on the moon, and said his most famous words, "That 's one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind." 45 years later NASA calls the Apollo 11 missions one of the crowning achievements of the 20th century. Started after President Kennedy’s speech to send a man to the moon, NASA had to play catch up in order to beat the Soviet Union and become the first country to land a man on the moon.
Neil Armstrong, the captain of the mission, started off as a test pilot, until he was recruited as a backup to the Gemini 5 mission. In 1966, Armstrong served as the command pilot for the Gemini 8 mission; this gave him confidence and allowed him to be part of the Apollo 11 mission. Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin in the same way was a test pilot, but after the deaths in the Gemini mission crew he was promoted to backup, and eventually Apollo 11. Michael Collins, who remained in orbit around the moon in a separate aircraft during the moon walk, said during an interview, that he did not have the best seat on the mission and was always worrying about his counterparts during the moonwalk. Armstrong and Aldrin explored the surface for around two and a half hours and collected 47 pounds of material for analysis. Following that mission, many other flights were taken to the learn more about the composition, age, and most

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