Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s walks on the Moon inspired awe in the millions who huddled round to watch on their televisions screens in 1969, and billions since.
But the most awe-inspiring part of Apollo 11 was not televised in its entirety – how the astronauts got to the Moon and back.
Moon fact: An automatic landing system was guiding the Apollo 11 astronauts on their final decent to the Moon. But Armstrong noticed it was sending them towards a boulder-covered crater. He quickly took manual control to take them safely to a flat area. When they finally landed, there was only 30 seconds worth of fuel left.
How did we get to the Moon… and back?
The first Moon landing is a story littered with big numbers. It took eight years, 10 practice-run missions, more than 400,000 engineers, scientists and technicians, and in today’s money roughly £150bn to make the first tentative steps on another planetary body.
