Apollo 11

1. The space vehicle that carried three American astronauts to the moon and back in July 1969. The vehicle consisted of a command module, which stayed in lunar orbit, and a lunar module, which carried two of the three crewmen to a safe landing on the moon.

The other members of the crew were Buzz Aldrin, the second person to walk on the moon, and Michael Collins.

On becoming the first person to set foot on the moon, Neil Armstrong declared: “That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

Example Sentences

Along with Frank Borman and Bill Anders, Jim Lovell made history when the three undertook the first lunar mission on Apollo 8, testing the Command/Service Module and its life support systems in preparation for the later Apollo 11 landing.

From BBC

When the Kennedy Center last fall commissioned Morris to make an evening-length centerpiece for its vast “Earth to Space: Arts Breaking the Sky” festival, nothing more was intended than to honor JFK’s initiative that led, in 1969, to Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin being the first Earthlings to walk on the moon.

From Los Angeles Times

In it he defended the enormity of the Apollo 11 mission’s expense by noting, “There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet,” and warned that “its opportunity for peaceful cooperation may never come again.”

From Los Angeles Times

The floating, sticky dust, technically known as lunar regolith, also made it tough to see during landing or during surface activities; for example, the Apollo 11 astronauts in 1969 repeatedly tripped over an external TV cable obscured in powder.

From Salon

There have been exceptions: The Apollo 11 mission got recognition on the Walk of Fame in 1973, “with a uniquely designed special award in the category of Television as a tribute to the first televised Walk on the Moon,” according to the Walk of Fame website.

From Los Angeles Times