Neil Armstrong, 1969. Image: NASA / Wikimedia Commons. Source.
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Apollo 11’s success in July 1969 depended on a vast technical and organisational system extending far beyond the three astronauts. The Saturn V launched Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin and Michael Collins toward the Moon. In lunar orbit, Armstrong and Aldrin entered the Lunar Module Eagle while Collins remained in Columbia. During descent, computer alarms and an unexpectedly rocky landing area increased pressure; Armstrong manually guided Eagle to a safer site with limited fuel remaining. The landing fulfilled President John F. Kennedy’s earlier commitment to land a person on the Moon and return safely before the decade ended. Yet Apollo was also inseparable from Cold War competition, enormous federal expenditure and the labour of hundreds of thousands of engineers, technicians and contractors.
