The Apollo 11 lunar module landed on the Moon on July 20, 1969, during the first crewed lunar landing.
Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin descended in the lunar module Eagle while Michael Collins remained in lunar orbit in the command module Columbia. The landing occurred in the Moon’s Sea of Tranquility after Armstrong manually guided the spacecraft past a hazardous area with boulders and limited fuel.
Armstrong stepped onto the lunar surface several hours later, early on July 21 in Coordinated Universal Time. This difference in time zones explains why some records list the first human step as July 21 while the landing itself is dated July 20 in the United States.
The mission launched from Florida on July 16, 1969, and returned to Earth on July 24. Apollo 11 fulfilled President John F. Kennedy’s goal of landing humans on the Moon and returning them safely before the end of the 1960s.