The First Men on the Moon : The Story of Apollo 11 Part I. The decision to go the Moon The Apollo spacecraft CSM LM The Saturn V launch vehicle Ground support Mission Control MSFN Precursor missions Gemini Apollo 8 Apollo 9 Apollo 10 Selecting a landing site Apollo operational constraints Lunar Orbiter reconnaissance Surveyor surface investigation The mascon issue Site shortlist Part II. The men of Apollo 11 The crew rotation system Neil Armstrong Buzz Aldrin Michael Collins Training Simulators Geology training Surface experiments Preparations Stacking The crawler Suiting up Witnesses The ticking clock Setting off Ascent Activities in parking orbit Translunar injection Through the radiation belts Coasting TD and E Coasting in passive thermal roll Navigational checks Crossing the neutral point Arrival Behind the Moon Lunar orbit insertion Circularisation Viewing the landing site Preparations Separation Descent Descent orbit insertion Initiation of powered descent Touchdown Tranquillity Base Post landing activities EVA preparations On the ladder ‘One small step’ The flag ceremony Collecting rocks Ingress sleep and preparations to leave Coming home Liftoff and rendezvous TEI In flight press conference Entry splashdown recovery BIG suits and quarantine trailer Home Part III. The lunar samples Follow on missions The next two The lunar field geologists Budget cuts and lost opportunities Life after Apollo 11 Reflections On 12 April 1961 Yuri Gagarin became the first man to orbit the Earth. One month later President John F. Kennedy challenged the American nation to land a man on the Moon before the decade was out. On 16 July 1969 Neil Armstrong Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin set off in Apollo 11 to attempt this audacious mission and succeeded magnificently. This book tells the story of Apollo 11 starting with crew selection and training the choice of the landing site and the assembly of the space vehicle then a detailed account of the mission featuring the lunar landing and moonwalk and a review of how our knowledge of the Moons history was revolutionised as a result. The story is enlivened by dialogue between the astronauts in space and the flight controllers in Mission Control