Those who followed him on television still remember it: 50 years ago this Saturday, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the Moon, a global event celebrated in the United States, at a time when NASA is trying to to remobilize the country for a lunar reconquest.
"Houston, here the Base of Tranquility, The Eagle landed", launched Armstrong at 8:18 pm GMT shortly after switching off the engine of its lunar module, after a suspenseful descent, followed from Earth only by radio communications . For the occasion, NASA TV rebroadcast the broadcast of the channel CBS as it had broadcast the event live at the time.
"Eagle, Houston.You are Go for landing.Over."
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A little more than six hours after having aluni then coated his spacesuit and made innumerable preparations, including the deployment of a black and white camera, at 02H56 GMT - in the middle of the night in Europe, a Monday morning at 03:56 at the Time in France - the commander Armstrong put the first foot, the left, on the Moon, and declared: "It is a small step for the man, a giant leap for the humanity". He was followed soon after by Buzz Aldrin.
"Apollo 11 is the only event of the 20th century that has a chance to be widely known in the 30th century," US Vice President Mike Pence said in a speech Saturday at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. where was the mission. NASA has been overheating for weeks celebrating the event, with many shows and events, including Houston, where a countdown will revive Armstrong's first step in the evening.