Page 42 - The Appollo Story

-------------1 The Apollo Story....-----------......._

Apollo 11 (AS-506) The Eagle Has Landed
Apollo 11 effectively ended the Space Race
and fulfilled a national goal proposed in 1961
by the late US President John F. Kennedy in a
speech before the United States Congress,
"before this decade is out, of landing a man on
the Moon and returning him safely to the
Earth."
On the left is the Lunar Module landing site
photographed by the LRO in 2012.
In 2009 the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) imaged the various
Apollo landing sites on the surface of the Moon with sufficient resolution
to see the descent stages of the lunar modules, scientific instruments, and
foot trails made by the astronauts.

The Soviet Union was secretly attempting to compete with the US in landing a man on the Moon but had
been hampered by repeated failures in development of a launcher comparable to the Saturn V. Meanwhile,
they tried to beat the US to return lunar material to the Earth by means of unmanned probes. On July 13,
three days before Apollo 11 's launch, they launched Luna 15, which reached lunar orbit before Apollo 11.
During descent, a malfunction caused Luna 15 to crash in Mare Crisium about two hours before Armstrong
and Aldrin took off from the surface. The Jodrell Bank Observatory radio telescope in England was later
discovered to have recorded transmissions from Luna 15 during its descent, and this was published in July
2009 on the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11.