Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the Moon during Apollo 11.
Apollo 11 landed in the Moon’s Sea of Tranquility on July 20, 1969. Armstrong stepped onto the lunar surface first, followed about nineteen minutes later by lunar-module pilot Buzz Aldrin. Command-module pilot Michael Collins remained in orbit around the Moon.
The mission launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on July 16 aboard a Saturn V rocket. Armstrong and Aldrin used the lunar module Eagle to descend, while Collins stayed in the command module Columbia. The crew returned safely to Earth on July 24.
Apollo 11 was the first human lunar-landing mission, but it followed years of earlier American and Soviet robotic and crewed spaceflight. The astronauts collected lunar samples, deployed scientific instruments, photographed the surface, and planted an American flag.
A common mix-up is to identify Collins as one of the two moonwalkers. He was essential to the mission but never walked on the Moon. Armstrong and Aldrin spent more than two hours outside the lunar module.