Wikipedia:WikiProject Space 2019/Main Page/July 21

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From today's featured article

Neil Armstrong (1930–2012) was an astronaut and aeronautical engineer who was the first person to walk on the Moon. He was a United States Naval Aviator who served in the Korean War and later worked as a civilian test pilot for experimental aircraft. Armstrong joined the NASA Astronaut Corps in the second group, selected in 1962; he made his first spaceflight as command pilot of Gemini 8 in March 1966, becoming NASA's first civilian astronaut to fly in space. During this mission with pilot David Scott, he completed the first docking of two spacecraft. In July 1969, Armstrong and Apollo 11 Lunar Module pilot Buzz Aldrin performed the first crewed Moon landing, while Michael Collins remained in lunar orbit in the command module. Stepping onto the lunar surface, Armstrong said: "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind." He was later awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Congressional Space Medal of Honor and the Congressional Gold Medal. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

Michael Collins

... that Michael Collins (pictured), the command module pilot for Apollo 11, was the first person to perform two spacewalks in a single mission?
... that the 1957 launch of Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, led to a period of public anxiety in the United States and accelerated the Space Race?
... that pilot-cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first human in space and first to orbit the Earth, ejected from his descending spacecraft at an altitude of about 7,000 metres (23,000 ft)?
... that two Russian tortoises were aboard the first spacecraft to return safely from a trip around the Moon?
... that Mae Jemison, the first black woman in space, worked at a Cambodian refugee camp in Thailand and was a medical officer for the Peace Corps before becoming an astronaut?
... that the Soviet probe Luna 2, the first human-made object to make contact with the Moon, began a trend of crash landing missions that continued even after soft landings were mastered?
... that David Scott's performance under pressure during Gemini 8, the first mission to achieve a docking in space, led to his selection for the Apollo program?
... that cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova made 42 trips outside the Soviet Union between 1963 and 1970 in response to invitations she received after becoming the first woman in space?
... that Félicette, the first cat in space, was subjected to 9.5 g of acceleration and five minutes of weightlessness?

In the news

Kyoto Animation Studio 1 in 2015

An arson attack at an animation studio (building pictured) in Kyoto, Japan, kills at least 34 people.
The World Health Organization declares the Ebola outbreak in Congo an international public health emergency.
The European Parliament elects Ursula von der Leyen as president of the European Commission.
The Cricket World Cup concludes with England defeating New Zealand in the final.

On this day

July 21: Seventeenth of Tammuz (Judaism, 2019)

Buzz Aldrin

230 – Pope Pontian began his pontificate, succeeding Urban I.
905 – Louis III, Holy Roman Emperor, was captured during his attempt to restore Carolingian power over Italy by King Berengar I and blinded.
1925 – American high school biology teacher John T. Scopes was found guilty of violating Tennessee's Butler Act by teaching evolution in class.
1969 – During the Apollo 11 mission, Buzz Aldrin (pictured) stepped out of the Lunar Module Eagle and photographed human boot-prints on the Moon.
1973 – Mossad agents killed a Moroccan waiter in Lillehammer, Norway, mistakenly believing he had been involved in the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre.
2012 – Turkish adventurer Erden Eruç became the first person in history to complete a solo human-powered circumnavigation of the Earth.

Charles Tristan, marquis de Montholon (b. 1783) · Russell Lee (b. 1903) · Rilwanu Lukman (d. 2014)

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Today's featured picture

Apollo 11 was the fifth crewed mission of NASA's Apollo program. After launching from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on July 16, 1969, commander Neil Armstrong and Apollo Lunar Module pilot Buzz Aldrin landed Eagle in Mare Tranquillitatis on July 20, at 20:17:40 UTC, while command module pilot Michael Collins remained on Columbia in lunar orbit. Armstrong was the first to exit the spacecraft, stepping onto the surface 6 hours and 39 minutes later, on July 21, at 02:56:15 UTC; nineteen minutes later, Aldrin joined him on extravehicular activity, which lasted 2 hours, 31 minutes and 40 seconds. Armstrong and Aldrin lifted off from Tranquility Base after almost 22 hours on the lunar surface and rejoined Collins in the command module, before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean on July 24.

The mission was planned to the minute, with the majority of the photographic tasks performed by Armstrong with a single Hasselblad camera. Most of the photographs taken on the Moon that include an astronaut are of Aldrin; there are only five images of Armstrong partly shown or reflected, as in this photograph, with Armstrong and the lunar module reflected in Aldrin's helmet visor. "As the sequence of lunar operations evolved," Aldrin explained, "Neil had the camera most of the time [...] It wasn't until we were back on Earth and in the Lunar Receiving Laboratory looking over the pictures that we realized there were few pictures of Neil."

Photograph credit: Neil Armstrong

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