It was July 20, 1969 and man had landed on the Moon. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were inside the lunar module Eagle, on the surface of the Sea of Tranquility, after a hair-raising descent that included confusing computer alarms, large boulders in the targeted touchdown area and warnings that fuel was running dangerously low.

The world held it's collective breath awaiting official word from the crew as an open microphone picked up a flurry of technical jargon spoken between the two astronauts. And then Armstrong send the first words intended for broadcast to Earth: "Houston, Tranquility Base here, the Eagle has landed."

Too keyed up to sleep, as the flight plan called for, Armstrong and Aldrin moved up their extravehicular activity several hours, anxious to get started on the 2.5-hour Moon walk. Before long they were outside and setting up science experiments, as this view of Aldrin shows. Four days later the Apollo 11 crew including command module pilot Mike Collins, safely returned to Earth.