1. Leaving Cert History

2. The Apollo Programme
• Its aim was to get to the moon and back
safely.
• It used the most powerful rocket ever; the
Saturn V.
• It took 10 Apollo trips before they felt that
they were ready to land on the moon.
• Apollo 11 made history.

3. Apollo 11 rocket
• This was the first rocket to take someone to the
moon. The rocket itself had three pieces to it:
• 1. The Command module carried the astronauts
to the moon and back
• 2. The Service module held the rockets and fuel.
• 3. The Lunar module would disconnect from the
command module and it would land on the
moon. It would stand on four legs and held a
ladder and instruments for the astronauts to
carry out experiments on the moon.

4. Apollo 11 astronauts
• Neil Armstrong was the commander of the
mission
• Buzz Aldrin was the pilot of the lunar module
• Michael Collins was the pilot of the command
module
• They were constantly in touch with the space
centre in Houston.

5. The Apollo 11 mission
• They left Kennedy Space Centre in Florida on July
16th 1969
• The journey to the moon took three days.
• The astronauts had to get used to their
weighlessness in the command module, they had to
strap themselves onto beds to stop them floating in
their sleep and damaging the spacecraft.
• July 19th Armstrong and Aldrin left in the lunar
module to continue to the moon while Collins
circled the moon

6. • July 20th the lunar module landed on a smooth area of
the moon called the Sea of Tranquillity.
• Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon;
when he stepped out he said the famous line; “one
small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”
• The moon landing was watched by 600 million people
• They spent over 20 hours on the moon. They carried
out experiments, left an American flag and collected
moon samples.
• They then rocketed in the lunar module back to the
command module. Once safely inside they dropped the
lunar module to save weight.

7. • July 24th they landed in the Pacific Ocean
where they were picked up by boat.
• They were welcomed back by President Nixon
• They were quarantined (locked away from
people) for 21 days to make sure they had not
picked up any illnesses.
• The astronauts were treated as heroes around
the world.

8. The importance of the moon landing
• They had beaten Russia in the space race.
• They won because the American presidents
were willing to spend $27 billion to get a man
on the moon.
• There were 6 more Apollo missions; after that
not as much money was given to moon
exploration.
• NASA continued its work and began to focus
on investigating the other planets.