Speaking at the Newseum in Rosslyn, Virginia, Armstrong and fellow Apollo 11 flyers Buzz Aldrin and Mike Collins described their historic voyage and how it effected their lives in the three decades since the flight.

"I remember being on the right side of Neil, having shut the engine off, and we realized that we had made it," Aldrin said.

Armstrong described setting his foot down from the landing crafts ladder. "It was a natural thing to do," he told moderator Tim Russert. "It was a short step off the Lunar Module, about six inches," he added. Collins recalled the risks posed by the flight. "I had figured out before we even left that the trip would be hazardous," Collins said.

The astronauts said that they had agreed that the prospects for a successful flight lay in the "50 to 60 percent range," Collins said, adding "when I heard that they had finally gone down safely, I could wipe one brow. The other was for the return."

But Armstrong said that while he was effected by being the first man on the Moon, he could not describe what his life would have been like had he not been an astronaut. "Its difficult for me to say what my life would have been (without Apollo)," he commented. "Ive been pleased how things turned out."

Aldrin said that he often looked up at the Moon today and thought about his brief explorations there in the summer of 1969. "The Moon is now a friend," he said. "We had the best looking flag on the Moon." The astronauts were interviewed by Russert at the Newseum before a sell-out crowd of kids and families.

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