Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
5 facts about the Apollo 11 moon landing
5 facts about the Apollo 11 moon landing
Dec 4, 2025 1:12 PM

This week marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, when astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins became the first people in history to land on the Moon. Here are five facts you should know about the most famous manned space mission.

1. The Apollo 11 mission was carried out by three mander Neil Armstrong, lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin, mand module pilot Mike Collins. But the team that took them to the moon included more than 400,000 scientists, engineers and technicians, and workers from across the United States. Many of the people on the project were also relatively young. The average age of the engineers inside Mission Control when the Apollo 11 capsule returned on July 24, 1969 was 28.

2. puters on the Apollo spacecraft were plex than a basic calculator. According to Computer Weekly, astronauts entered mands using verb-and-noun instructions: a verb to tell puter to do a specific action, and a corresponding noun on which to do it [i.e. “aim telescope”]. To do that, it only needed 64 kilobytes of memory and operated at 0.043MHz. Today, a USB memory stick today is more powerful than the Apollo Guidance Computer.

3. Armstrong wasn’t convinced the team would be able to land their lunar module, and put the odd of success at only 50-50. “There are so many unknowns on that descent from lunar orbit down to the surface that had not been demonstrated yet by testing and there was a big chance that there was something in there we didn’t understand properly and we had to abort e back to Earth without landing,” said Armstrong. His concerns were not unwarranted since mishaps were likely. While Armstrong and Aldrin were concluding the first moonwalk, the Soviets Luna 15 probe crashed into the Moon about 530 miles from the Apollo 11 landing site.

4. Armstrong’s famous words uttered when stepping on the Moon were misheard. Most people on Earth heard, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” But Armstrong was adamant that what he had actually said was, “That’s one small step foraman, one giant leap for mankind.” “It’s just that people just didn’t hear [the ‘a’],” Armstrongtoldthe press once he was back on Earth. In 2006, puter programmer used a piece of software toanalyzeArmstrong’s words and found that the “a” was indeed there but was likely not heard because of radio static.

5. Aldrin became the first person to celebrate the Lord’s Supper on the Moon. munion bread was carried in a plastic packet, the way regular inflight food is wrapped. He also carried the wine in a vial and poured it into a small silver chalice. Before munion, Aldrin read fromJohn 15:5, which he had handwritten on a scrap of paper—”I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me, and I in him, will bear much fruit, for you can do nothing without me.” munion ceremony was dramatized in an episode of From the Earth to the Moon, a twelve-part HBO television miniseries from 1998. Buzz Aldrin was played by actor Bryan Cranston.

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
The Counterculture World Of Flannery O’Connor
Flannery O’Connor had a brilliant but short literary career. She died in 1964 at the age of 39 due plications from lupus, yet managed to leave behind a legacy of keen insight into the human condition of sin, in ways some considered repulsive. Her best known story, A Good Man is Hard to Find, is a morality tale of stiff adherence to “good.” O’Connor manages to turn upside-down the moral code of the seemingly “good” people in the story while...
War on Women: Hypocrisy and Paternalism under the Guise of Equality
“The equal pay issue is rife with myths,” says Elise Hilton in this week’s Acton Commentary. “The myths have a long history in American politics.” With more than a dozen smiling women looking over his shoulder in the East Room of the White House, President Obama signed a proclamation in support of National Equal Pay Day on April 8. The president said he was working to prevent workplace discrimination and helping workers take control over negotiations regarding their pay. “My...
Real Charters Schools Needed in Kansas
A failed charter school and someone looking to start a charter school in Kansas can only look to Kansas City, Mo., and wonder what impact high-performing public charter schools may have for kids in the state. ...
Just Render Unto Caesar Already: The IRS and Frivolous Tax Arguments
In an attempt to trap Jesus, some Pharisees and Herodians asked him, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? Should we pay them, or should we not?” In response, Jesus said, “Why put me to the test? Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.” And they brought one. And he said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said to him, “Caesar’s.” Jesus said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that...
Audio: Sirico on Pope Francis and President Obama
Acton Institute President and Cofounder Rev. Robert A. Sirico joined host Josh Tolley on The Josh Tolley Show on the GCN Radio Network to discuss the recent meeting at the Vatican between Pope Francis and US President Barack Obama. Sirico speaks about the discrepancy between the White House and Vatican recaps of the meeting and how that reflects the different purposes that the leaders had for the meeting as well as their different approach to dealing with social problems. You...
7 Figures: Tax Day Edition
[Note: ‘7 Figures’ is a new, occasional series highlighting data and information from a variety of surveys and reports.] 1. The average federal tax rate for all households (tax liabilities divided by e, including government transfer payments) before taxes is 18.1 percent. 2. Households in the top quintile (including the top percentile) paid 68.8 percent of all federal taxes, households in the middle quintile paid 9.1 percent, and those in the bottom quintile paid 0.4 percent of federal taxes. (Quintiles...
Woman Fights Back Against Occupational Licensing Laws in Mississippi
If you visited a florist would you immediately walk out if you found out it wasn’t licensed by the state? Would a florist shop still know how to perform their job without a state certificate? In most instances occupational licensing laws serve to mercial interests and not the consumer. Far too often these laws work directly against the entrepreneur. Melony Armstrong, who owns “Naturally Speaking,” fought back against the cumbersome and archaic cosmetology licensing laws that tried to prevent her...
The Fountainhead of Satanism
Over the past few years, Anton LaVey and his bookThe Satanic Biblehas grown increasingly popular, selling thousands of new copies. His impact has been especially pronounced in our nation’s capital. One U.S. senator has publicly confessed to being a fan of theThe Satanic Biblewhile another calls it his “foundation book.” On the other side of Congress, a representative speaks highly of LaVey and mends that his staffers read the book. A leading radio host called LaVey “brilliant” and quotations from...
King David on the Heart of Christian Stewardship
We live amid unprecedented economic prosperity, and with the promise of globalization and the continued expansion of opportunity and exchange, such prosperity is bound to grow. Yet if we’re to retain and share these blessings, such gifts need to be received and responded to with a heart of service, sacrifice, and obedience to God. “Man is not the owner,” write Lester DeKoster and Gerard Berghoef. “He is the overseer…Each of us is steward over those talents and those pounds allotted...
It’s Tax Day: How Generous Do You Feel?
It’s tax day, and though I’m sure you’ve already begun your revelry, I suggest take a moment of silence to relish that warm, fuzzy feeling we get when pressured to pay up or head to the Big House. Indeed, with all of the euphemistic Circle-of-Protection talk bouncing around evangelicalism —reminding us of our “moral obligation” to treat political planners as economic masters and the “least of these” as political pawns —we should be jumping for joy at the opportunity. Nuclear...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved