Happy Moon Day!
The astronomical community is celebrating International Moon Day on July 20 to commemorate the anniversary of NASA’s Apollo 11 mission which landed the first humans on the Moon. On this day in 1969, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin conducted their Moonwalk, becoming the first batch of astronauts to ever step foot on the lunar surface. This day was declared International Moon Day by the United Nations (UN) in its resolution 76/76 on “International cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space” in 2021.
Why is #MoonDay celebrated on 20 July?
It observes the anniversary of the #Apollo11🇺🇸 mission of @NASA during which the first humans landed on the #Moon🌕.
📷 #NASA – @TheRealBuzz photographed by Neil Armstrong pic.twitter.com/BzQYDRgh8u
— UNOOSA (@UNOOSA) July 15, 2022
The video above is the Original Mission Video as aired in July 1969 depicting the Apollo 11 astronauts conducting several tasks during extravehicular activity (EVA) operations on the surface of the moon. The EVA lasted approximately 2.5 hours with all scientific activities being completed satisfactorily.
The Apollo 11 (EVA) began at 10:39:33 p.m. EDT on July 20, 1969 when Astronaut Neil Armstrong emerged from the spacecraft first. While descending, he released the Modularized Equipment Stowage Assembly on the Lunar Module’s descent stage. A camera on this module provided live television coverage of man’s first step on the Moon. On this, their one and only EVA, the astronauts had a great deal to do in a short time.
During this first visit to the Moon, the astronauts remained within about 100 meters of the lunar module, collected about 47 pounds of samples, and deployed four experiments. After spending approximately 2 hours and 31 minutes on the surface, the astronauts ended the EVA at 1:11:13 a.m. EDT on July 21.
Despite all our bad traits, like greed, war, and Tik Tok dancing videos, you got to hand it to them—humans are freaking cool and smart. The moon landing was one of the greatest feats of mankind and so much useful technology that exists today came as a result. What would the world look like now had we never decided to go to the moon?
