Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
5 facts about the Apollo 11 moon landing
5 facts about the Apollo 11 moon landing
Nov 3, 2025 1:03 AM

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
Why Churches Should Be Tax Exempt
Churches and other religious institutions in American are almost always exempt from federal, state, and local taxes. The justification for this policy is usually that such institutions provide vital charitable benefits to society. While that is undoubtably true the benefits argument is not the strongest reason to support tax exemption. A better reason is that we need to maintain a distinction between the state and the church. As Richard W. Garnett and Paul J. Schierl explain, the separation of church...
God and Man in the Age of Trump
If a classic, as Mark Twain claimed, is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read, then William F. Buckley, Jr.’s God and Man at Yale is the epitome of a conservative classic. Few who have read it (and they are indeed few) would dispute its importance to the founding of modern conservatism. As the historian George Nash said, God and Man was “probably the most controversial book in the history of conservatism since 1945 and...
Unemployment as Economic-Spiritual Indicator — June 2016 Report
Series Note: Jobs are one of the most important aspects of a morally functioning economy. They help us serve the needs of our neighbors and lead to human flourishing both for the individual and munities. Conversely, not having a job can adversely affect spiritual and psychological well-being of individuals and families. Because unemployment is a spiritual problem, Christians in America need to understand and be aware of the monthly data on employment. Each month highlight the latest numbers we need...
How to Pray for the Police
They swore to protect and serve. Now they lie dead and wounded. Last night five law enforcement officers in Dallas were killed and six more were wounded. They need our prayers, as do all the men and women who dedicate their lives to keeping us safe on our streets and in our homes. Here are eight ways we can pray for the police in America . . . Continue reading. ...
Stewarding Retirement: Why a Christian’s Work Never Ends
As Christians in the modern economy, we face a constant temptation to limit our work and stewardship to the temporal and the material, focusing only on “putting in our 40,” working for the next paycheck, and tucking away enough cash for a cozy retirement. Such priorities have led many to absorbthe most consumeristicfeatures of the so-called “American Dream,” approaching work only as a means for retirement, and retirement only as a “dead space” for recreation and leisure. Yet as retiree...
Don Quixote, Pioneer of Religious Freedom
The Spanish novelist Cervantes wrote his famous tale about a knight-errant almost 200 years before the the 1st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was adopted. But as Eric C. Graf, Professor of Literature at Universidad Francisco Marroquín, explains, Don Quixote paved the way for freedom of religious conscience by championing the freedom to think or believe what you want in your head. ...
The School Suspension Quagmire
The harsh discipline policies at schools across the nation are now under close scrutiny. Last week, Secretary of Education John King criticized the ‘zero-tolerance’ discipline policies of many charter schools across the country. King claimed that plicated issues surrounding school discipline were being oversimplified into a binary process at many charter schools that led to a higher number of suspensions. This is a problem that exists across public, private, and charter schools around the country: students are suspended and expelled...
Weak rule of law in administrative state threatens freedom
People often criticize the vast size and scope of the bureaucracy in the United States, but there is another critical issue involving the administrative state that is seldom discussed: the breakdown of the rule of law. The procedural rights that are necessary for a strong rule of law and are so often taken for granted are not guaranteed in the administrative state today. Strong rule of law is one of the necessary elements for a free and virtuous society, and...
Pokémon Go, community, and spontaneous order
The long awaited augmented reality mobile gamePokémon Go, based on the long running video game franchise, was released in the United States, Australia, and New Zealand late last week. The game allows players to find and capturePokémon, like the famous Pikachu, in the real world as they walk around streets and parks throughout their cities. While the game is an entertaining diversion, it serves as a catalyst for something greater.WithPokémon Go, a beautiful emergent order munity has already started. Neighbors...
Government Fees That Perpetuate Poverty
The Atlantic magazine published an article on July 5, 2016 highlighting the growing problems in Louisiana with legal financial obligations (LFOs) and their effect on poor defendants and the recently incarcerated. Former prisoners usually have a hard time finding a stable e post incarceration and LFOs often require former prisoners to pay thousands of dollars upon release. The average amount in the state of Washington is $1,347, with interest rates that make the debt increase over time. One woman the...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved