One Giant Leap

Those of you who are a certain age likely remember where you were on the night of 20 July 1969. Grainy pictures from the Sea of Tranquility were broadcast live, as the mission's commander, Neil Armstrong, descended the Lunar Module's ladder that night at 2256 Eastern Daylight Time, becoming the first human to touch the lunar surface. The mission came less than seven years after President John F. Kennedy told the world in a speech to students at Rice University: "We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things." The editors and staff of Proceedings hereby proudly pay a 40th anniversary pictorial tribute to the pioneers of Apollo 11.