The flight of Apollo 11, the mission chosen to attempt the first lunar landing, was scheduled to launch July 16, 1969. After the success of Apollo 10, it appeared that NASA would indeed keep the promise that John F. Kennedy made eight years earlier.
The crew consisted of an all-veteran, multipurpose group: Commander Neil Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins, and Lunar Module (LM) Pilot Buzz Aldrin. For all three, it would be their second time in space.
Armstrong, 38, an Ohio-born naval aviator and test pilot, was among the second group of NASA astronauts. Along with David Scott, he flew aboard Gemini VIII in 1966. Collins, also 38, was born in Rome. The son of a U.S. Army major general, he became an Air Force test pilot before being selected to the third group of NASA astronauts. He, with John Young, was a veteran of Gemini X, which flew in 1966. Aldrin, 39, was an engineer and Air Force pilot who was selected in the third astronaut group; he flew with Jim Lovell on Gemini XII in 1966. The support crew for Apollo 11 included capsule communicators (capcoms) Charlie Duke, Ronald Evans, Ken Mattingly, Bruce McCandless, Harrison Schmitt, and Jack Swigert.
Mission planning went smoothly. Not everyone in NASA was amused by the informal names of the Apollo 10 command and lunar modules — Charlie Brown and Snoopy, respectively — so more serious names were given to the Apollo 11 counterparts: Columbia for the command module and Eagle for the LM. Eagle took its name from the emblem of the United States. Columbia borrowed its name in part from the European historical name for the Americas, and also in a reference to Jules Verne’s 1865 novel, From the Earth to the Moon.
Anticipation for the launch was immense. After years of planning, the Gemini missions, and all of the Apollo mission testing, the big day was finally near.
In the summer of 1969, the decade was rocketing to a close, portraying a far different world from the summer of love in 1967 and the hippie culture of 1968. President Richard Nixon had ordered the first troop withdrawals from Vietnam. Former President Dwight Eisenhower lay in state in the U.S. Capitol. Students overran the administration building at Harvard University to protest the Vietnam War.
The Beatles played their last public concert, on the London rooftop of Apple Records. Led Zeppelin released its first album. Plans came together for Woodstock, to be held in August in New York. Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones drowned in his swimming pool. Blind Faith played its first show in front of a massive crowd in London’s Hyde Park.
And the world’s eyes increasingly turned toward that bright ball of light in the night sky.