Wikipedia:WikiProject Space 2019

Welcome to the WikiProject Space 2019. This set of pages is used to coordinate efforts to mark the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 mission. The goal of this project is to bring together the various projects handling curation of the Main Page in the hopes of running a themed takeover centered around Space Exploration.

This page is not for discussions. Please use the table below to find the most appropriate section to post in, or post in the miscellaneous section.

WikiProject Space 2019


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Sunday, July 21 (walk on the moon)

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Today's featured article

Neil Armstrong (1930–2012) was an astronaut and aeronautical engineer who was the first person to walk on the Moon. He was a United States Naval Aviator who served in the Korean War and later worked as a test pilot. Armstrong joined the NASA Astronaut Corps in the second group, selected in 1962; he made his first spaceflight as command pilot of Gemini 8 in March 1966, becoming NASA's first civilian astronaut to fly in space. During this mission with pilot David Scott, he completed the first docking of two spacecraft. In July 1969, Armstrong and Apollo 11 lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin performed the first crewed Moon landing, while Michael Collins remained in lunar orbit in the command module. Stepping onto the lunar surface, Armstrong said: "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind." He was later awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Congressional Space Medal of Honor and the Congressional Gold Medal. (Full article...)

 
Michael Collins

July 21: Belgian National Day (1831)

 
Depiction of the Ciompi Revolt
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Apollo 11 was the fifth crewed mission of NASA's Apollo program. After launching from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on July 16, 1969, commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin landed Eagle on July 20, at 20:17:40 UTC, in Mare Tranquillitatis, while command module pilot Michael Collins remained on Columbia in lunar orbit. Armstrong was the first to exit the spacecraft, stepping onto the surface about six hours later, on July 21, at 02:56:15 UTC; nineteen minutes later, Aldrin joined him on extravehicular activity, lasting 2 hours, 31 minutes and 40 seconds. Armstrong and Aldrin lifted off from Tranquility Base after almost 22 hours on the lunar surface and rejoined Collins in the command module, before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean on July 24.

The mission was planned to the minute, with the majority of the photographic tasks performed by Armstrong with a single Hasselblad camera. Most of the photographs taken on the Moon that include an astronaut are of Aldrin; there are only five images of Armstrong partly shown or reflected, as in this iconic photograph, with Armstrong and the lunar module reflected in Aldrin's helmet visor. "As the sequence of lunar operations evolved," Aldrin explained, "Neil had the camera most of the time [...] It wasn't until we were back on Earth and in the Lunar Receiving Laboratory looking over the pictures that we realized there were few pictures of Neil."

Photograph credit: Neil Armstrong


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