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Welcome to ESAHistory of Europe in spaceELDO/ESRO/ESA:
Key dates 1960-2010Key figures European space pioneersPast Directors General of ESAESRO Directors GeneralELDO Secretaries GeneralChairs of ELDO/ESRO/ESA CouncilESA History Project The History of the European Space AgencySpace history on the webFurther reading on European space historyDownload ESA Bulletin: The ESA History ProjectHistory Study ReportsA History of the European Space Agency, Volume I:
The story of ESRO and ELDO, 1958-1973 (pdf)A History of the European Space Agency, Volume II:
The story of ESA, 1973-1987 (pdf)
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| | Armstrong in Command Module Columbia | |
On this day: 40 years ago
17 July 1969
At 12:54 a.m. CEST (7:54 p.m. EDT), Apollo 11 is reported as 47 700 km from Earth and traveling at 3.9 km/s. Crew members are busy with housekeeping duties.
1:52 a.m. Mission Control in Houston, Texas, says good night to the crew as they prepare to go to sleep two hours early.
3:59 a.m. Because of the pull of Earth's gravity, the spacecraft has slowed to 2.2 km/s at a distance of 116 700 km from Earth.
| | | Collins in Command Module Columbia |
1:48 p.m. Mission Control wakes the crew with a brief review of the morning news, including sports developments. They are informed about the progress of the Russian spacecraft Luna 15 and that Vice-President Spiro Agnew called for putting a man on Mars by the year 2000.
5:17 p.m. A midcourse correction is made with a 3-second engine burn, sharpening the course of the spacecraft and testing the engine that must get them in and out of lunar orbit.
More information:
ESA celebrates the 40th anniversary of mankind first setting foot on the Moon and pays tribute to the men and women who took part in this endeavour, some of whom are still active in NASA, ESA and international space programmes. A series of articles chronicles each day of the historic mission 40 years ago, from launch to landing, with many rarely-seen archive photographs and highlights of some fascinating European contributions to lunar exploration.
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| | The Apollo 11 crew On this day, 40 years ago... More pictures from this day in 196916 July 196918 July 196919 July 196920 July 196921 July 196922 July 196923/24 July 1969 First 'flag' on the Moon? Interview with an Apollo ground station pioneer ESA 'birthday card' of Apollo 11 landing site Human Spaceflight Education with ESA History of Europe in space NASA Apollo 40th anniversary site
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