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Timeline: Follow Apollo 11 to the moon

Fifty years ago, the United States made history by sending the first men to walk on the moon.

Credit: NASA

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, lunar module pilot of the first lunar landing mission, poses for a photograph beside the deployed United States flag during an Apollo 11 Extravehicular Activity (EVA) on the lunar surface. The Lunar Module (LM) is on the left, and the footprints of the astronauts are clearly visible in the soil of the Moon. Astronaut Neil A. Armstrong, commander, took this picture with a 70mm Hasselblad lunar surface camera. While astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin descended in the LM, the "Eagle", to explore the Sea of Tranquility region of the Moon, astronaut Michael Collins, command module pilot, remained with the Command and Service Modules (CSM) "Columbia" in lunar-orbit.

The United States made history 50 years ago when two American astronauts became the first humans in history to walk on the moon.

Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped foot on the lunar surface July 20, 1969, after a four-day space flight carried them from Cape Kennedy, Florida, hundreds of thousands of miles away into the history books.

Follow along the historic Apollo 11 mission with the interactive timeline below. (Can't see the timeline: tap here.)

Photos: 50 years ago, NASA sent man to the moon

Photos: 50 years ago, NASA put man on the moon

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NASA

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, lunar module pilot of the first lunar landing mission, poses for a photograph beside the deployed United States flag during an Apollo 11 Extravehicular Activity (EVA) on the lunar surface. The Lunar Module (LM) is on the left, and the footprints of the astronauts are clearly visible in the soil of the Moon. Astronaut Neil A. Armstrong, commander, took this picture with a 70mm Hasselblad lunar surface camera. While astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin descended in the LM, the "Eagle", to explore the Sea of Tranquility region of the Moon, astronaut Michael Collins, command module pilot, remained with the Command and Service Modules (CSM) "Columbia" in lunar-orbit.