9781422287439

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The Apollo 11 lunar module (LM) Eagle above the moon’s surface, as seen in a photo taken by command module pilot Michael Collins. Because of the importance of their historic mission, the astronauts had decided to use the eagle as the name for the ship that would land on the moon.The inset shows the members of the Apollo 11 crew: Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin. “The Eagle has Landed”

T he tiny spacecraft drifted over the surface of the Moon. Below, a stark gray landscape stretched out in all directions. Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were searching for a place to make a soft landing away from the rocks, boulders, and sharp ridges that dominated the terrain. Back on Earth, Mission Control in Houston radioed the astronauts: “ Eagle , you’re go for landing.” Eagle was the name Armstrong, Aldrin, and astronaut Michael Collins had given to the lunar module. Collins was not aboard Eagle ; he was orbiting overhead in the command module, which the astronauts had named Columbia . It was July 20, 1969. Four days earlier, the three astro- nauts had blasted off from Cape Canaveral in Florida aboard Apollo 11. The mission of Apollo 11 was to land

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