In which year did Neil Armstrong walk on the moon? The answer is 1969. Armstrong stepped onto the lunar surface during NASA’s Apollo 11 mission on July 20, 1969, becoming the first person to walk on the Moon. His fellow astronaut Buzz Aldrin joined him shortly afterward, while Michael Collins remained in lunar orbit aboard the command module Columbia.
Apollo 11 launched from Florida on July 16, 1969, using a Saturn V rocket. The lunar module Eagle landed in the Moon’s Sea of Tranquility four days later. Armstrong and Aldrin spent about two and a half hours outside the spacecraft, collecting rock and soil samples, taking photographs, and deploying scientific instruments.
A frequent source of confusion is the date: because of time zones, some countries recorded Armstrong’s first step as July 21. The landing and the beginning of the moonwalk occurred on July 20 in U.S. Eastern Time, but the event was July 21 in Universal Time. Apollo 11 returned safely to Earth on July 24, 1969.