NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center
Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin touched down on the lunar surface on July 20, 1969.
In 1961, President John F. Kennedy put a monumental goal before Congress:
"I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth," Kennedy said. "No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish."
Indeed, it took eight years to reach the moon after that, and NASA burned through $25.4 billion dollars before the Apollo program was finished. But on July 20, 1969, as people throughout the world gathered around fuzzy television sets, astronaut Neil Armstrong announced: "the Eagle has landed."
Here's how the US made it to the moon 49 years ago.