Gibraltar wishes to celebrate NASA’s achievements by issuing a miniature sheet with four stamps depicting one of the most loved and memorable moments of the 20th Century when the Apollo 11 mission set off to land the first man on the moon. As NASA’s new goal is to have astronauts back on the moon by 2020 what better way to pay tribute than to recall the last trip! The agency has scheduled unmanned missions between 2008 and 2011 to map out landing sites and to find a spot for a permanent moon base.
The Apollo 11 mission was the first manned mission to land on the Moon. It was the fifth human spaceflight of the Apollo program and the third human voyage to the moon. Launched on July 16, 1969, it carried Commander Neil Alden Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin Eugene ‘Buzz’ Aldrin, Jr. On July 20, Armstrong and Aldrin became the first humans to land on the Moon, while Collins orbited above.
The mission fulfilled President John F. Kennedy’s goal of reaching the moon by the end of the 1960s: “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth” (1961 speech).
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