00:00In 1969, a man stepped onto the moon. He left a footprint in the dust.
00:05That footprint is still there today. No wind to blow it away.
00:09It all started with one man's dream. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy stood before the
00:16world and made a promise that sounded completely impossible. But Kennedy did not make this promise
00:22just for fun. America was in a race, a dangerous race against the Soviet Union,
00:27and America was losing badly. So NASA got to work. Thousands of the smartest engineers and
00:33scientists in America came together for one goal. Put a man on the moon. Bring him home alive.
00:39NASA chose three men for this mission. Neil Armstrong, the quiet commander, Buzz Aldrin,
00:45the brilliant scientist, and Michael Collins, the pilot who would wait alone above the moon.
00:50To reach the moon, they needed the most powerful machine ever built, the Saturn V rocket. It was
00:55taller than a 36-story building, and it was incredibly loud. The astronauts trained for
01:01years. They practiced every single step hundreds of times. They trained in water to feel like they
01:06were floating. They trained until they could do everything perfectly. But the road to the moon
01:11was not just hard. It was deadly. In 1967, three astronauts died in a terrible fire during a test.
01:18The whole nation cried. NASA did not give up. They learned from every mistake. They fixed every problem.
01:24They made the spacecraft safer and stronger. The three fallen astronauts would not be forgotten.
01:30The night before the launch, the three astronauts were alone with their thoughts.
01:34Tomorrow they would sit on top of a giant bomb and fly to another world.
01:39On the morning of July 16, 1969, the whole world stopped. 600 million people turned on their
01:46televisions. Everyone was watching. Everyone was holding their breath.
01:49The three astronauts put on their space suits. Each suit had 21 layers of special material.
01:56These suits would keep them alive in the emptiness of space.
02:03The Saturn V rocket rose from the ground with the power of a hundred thousand car engines roaring
02:09together. In just 12 minutes, they left Earth behind. The engines stopped. Silence filled the
02:14spacecraft. And outside the window, they saw their planet floating in the darkness. Small and
02:19beautiful. The trip to the moon took three days. Three days inside a tiny spacecraft no bigger than a
02:24large car. Three men, floating together, flying toward the unknown. After three days of flying,
02:31the moon filled their windows. Gray mountains. Deep craters. A dead silent world with no air,
02:37no water, and no life. Just dust and rock. Armstrong and Aldrin climbed into the small landing craft
02:42called the Eagle. It separated from the main ship. Michael Collins watched them fly away. He was now
02:49completely alone. The Eagle began falling toward the moon. Armstrong looked out the window at the
02:53surface rushing closer and closer. His heart was beating fast. But his voice stayed perfectly calm.
03:00Suddenly an alarm went off inside the Eagle. A 1202 alarm. The computer was overloaded. Armstrong called
03:06Houston. We're saying consecutive matter alarm. Roger, we got you. We're going that alarm. Then came another
03:10problem. The landing spot was full of huge rocks. Armstrong had to fly over them to find a flat
03:16place. But the fuel was running out. Seconds remained. A blue light came on. Contact. The landing
03:23probes touched the moon. Armstrong shut off the engine. Then he spoke to words, the air spill has
03:29neandered. They landed. But they did not step out right away. For six long hours they checked their
03:35systems and prepared their suits. The whole world waited outside that door. Neil Armstrong opened the
03:41hatch. He climbed slowly down a small ladder. And at 1056 at night, he placed his left foot on the
03:48moon.
03:50Armstrong began to walk. But on the moon you do not walk. You bounce. The gravity is six times weaker
03:56than Earth. Every step felt like floating. Like a dream. Then Buzz Aldrin climbed down the ladder and
04:02stepped onto the moon. He looked around at the gray empty landscape and said two perfect words.
04:08Magnificent desolation. They planted the American flag on the moon. They pushed it into the dust
04:13and stepped back. The flag stood still. No wind on the moon to make it wave. After two and a
04:20half hours
04:21on the surface, it was time to leave. But leaving the moon was just as dangerous as landing. They had
04:27only one engine. And it had to work. They also collected moon rocks and soil samples. They
04:33carefully placed them in special boxes. These rocks would help scientists understand how the moon was
04:38born billions of years ago. On July 24th, after eight days in space, the astronauts came home. Their
04:44spacecraft fell through the sky and splashed into the Pacific Ocean. They were safe. The mission was
04:49complete. They did it. We went to the moon. Not because it was easy. But because it was the hardest
04:54thing
04:54we could imagine. And we did it. Three brave men.
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