Google is marking 50 years since the first moon landing with a specially created Google Doodle.
Anyone using the search engine on Friday will see a video narrated by Mike Collins, astronaut and command module pilot on NASA's Apollo 11, explaining the incredible feat he achieved alongside Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.
"50 years ago, I went on an adventure," he says, as the animated Google Doodle recreates the groundbreaking mission to the moon.
A team of around 400,000 people from all over the world worked on Project Apollo—mostly factory workers, scientists, and engineers who never left the ground. Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, and Michael Collins were the men chosen to carry out the mission on behalf of mankind.
The Saturn V rocket blasted off on July 16, 1969 from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. Once it had achieved orbit around the moon, the lunar module, dubbed “the Eagle”, separated from the command module Collins was piloting for its 13-minute journey to the Moon’s surface. There, Armstrong took the first steps on the Moon, uttering the famous words: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
“The first time we saw the moon up close it was a magnificent spectacle. It was huge. The sun was coming around it, cascading and making a golden halo, and filled our entire window,” Collins explains in the Doodle. “As impressive as the view was of this alien Moon seen up close, it was nothing compared to the sight of the tiny Earth. The Earth was the main show, the Earth was it.”
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The Apollo 11 lunar landing mission crew with, from left, mission commander Neil A. Armstrong, command module pilot Michael Collins and lunar module pilot Edwin E. Aldrin Jr. pose in their space suits. NASA / EPA -
From right, Armstrong, Collins and Aldrin walk to the van that will take the crew to the launchpad at Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, Florida. AP Photo -
The 363-feet tall Saturn V rocket carrying the Apollo 11 launches from its pad in Cape Canaveral, USA. NASA / EPA -
Earth as the Apollo 11 mission heads to the moon. NASA / AP -
Flight controllers at the Space Center in Houston, Texas, USA, as the Apollo 11 mission's lunar landing module descends to the surface of the moon on July 20, 1969. NASA / EPA -
Earthrise viewed from the Apollo 11 mission's lunar landing module Eagle prior to its landing. NASA / EPA -
The 'Eagle' lunar landing module in landing configuration in lunar orbit taken by service module 'Columbia' commander Collins. NASA / EPA -
Aldrin descends a ladder from the Lunar Module during the Apollo 11 mission. NASA / AP -
Astronaut Aldrin walks on the moon in an iconic image taken by Armstrong. NASA / EPA -
Aldrin's boot and footprint in lunar soil. NASA / EPA -
Aldrin deploys the Passive Seismic Experiment Package. NASA / EPA -
One of the first steps taken on the Moon. NASA / EPA -
Armstrong works near the lunar landing module. NASA / EPA -
Aldrin stands besides a lunar seismometer. NASA / EPA -
Crater 308 on the moon viewed from orbit. NASA / EPA -
Armstrong sits inside the Lunar Module after he and Buzz Aldrin completed their extravehicular activity on the surface of the moon. NASA / AP -
Navy UDT swimmer Clancy Hatleberg prepares to jump from a helicopter to assist the astronauts into the raft at right. US Navy / AP -
President Richard Nixon gives an "OK" sign as he greets Apollo 11 astronauts in a quarantine van aboard the USS Hornet. AP Photo -
US soldiers read a newspaper headlining the Apollo 11 moon landing, in downtown Saigon, Vietnam. AP Photo -
People line 42nd Street in New York to cheer Apollo 11 astronauts traveling towards the United Nations. AP Photo
All three men returned safely to Earth on July 25, 1969, returning to a hero’s welcome. As well as putting the first men on the moon, the mission was responsible for many other scientific breakthroughs including freeze-dried food and CAT scans.
