Images of humankind’s first step on the Moon travelled more than
384,000km almost instantly to be seen live across the Earth.Taking the Eagle’sview
Tranquility BaseJuly. August 63PHOTO CREEDITS: CARLOS CLARIVAN / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
The Command Module
Columbia is the conical
section on the nose of the
cylindrical Service Module
and it carried the three
astronauts. The Service
Module contained scientifi c
instruments, fuel cells
and propulsion systems.
Armstrong and Aldrin fl ew to
the Moon’s surface and back
in the Lunar Module while
Michael Collins remained
in lunar orbit aboard the
Command Module.Service Module (CSM)
Called the Eagle,
this had two stages.
With four folding legs,
a descent stage allowed
powered landing on the
Moon, and was also the
launch pad for the ascent.
The upper stage housed
the fl ight controls and
propulsion systems
for returning the two
astronauts to lunar
orbit and the docking
manoeuvre with the CSM.
The descent stage was le
on the lunar surface.Command ModuleINFOGRAPHIC ANTHONY CALVERTCommand Module and Lunar Module (LM) Command ModuleA
S NEIL ARMSTRONG climbed
down the Lunar Module’s
ladder, he activated a remote
TV camera that transmitted live
pictures of the scene to the Apollo
tracking stations at Goldstone in
California and Honeysuckle Creek
outside Canberra. At that time,
both stations had the Lunar Module
in view and both sent their TV signals
on to Mission Control in Houston,
Texas. The fi rst TV images seen by
the record worldwide audience came
from Goldstone. But due to technical
di culties, Houston switched to
Honeysuckle about 30 seconds
before Armstrong took his fi rst step.
Then about six minutes a er this,
Houston switched to the signal from
Parkes for the remainder of the Moon
walk. This diagram illustrates these
three TV downlinks, while the timeline
shows precisely when each of the
TV signals was seen by the world.
In total, Neil Armstrong and Buzz
Aldrin spent 21 hours and 36 minutes
on the surface of the Moon.This conical cra had
a base diameter of 3.91m
and contained the main
control panels, navigation
systems, equipment
lockers, food, and the
docking tunnel for the LM.
The Service Module stage
was jettisoned on re-entry
to Earth’s atmosphere
a er which the Command
Module successfully
splashed down in the
Pacifi c Ocean.