Wikipedia:WikiProject Space 2019/Main Page/July 21/2

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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 test pilot. 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) was the first person to perform two spacewalks?
... that the 1957 launch of Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, led to a period of public anxiety in United States and accelerated the Space Race?
... that Félicette, the first cat in space, had electrodes surgically implanted in her brain to assess her neurological activity?
... that pilot-cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first human in space and the first to orbit the Earth, ejected from his descending spacecraft at about 7,000 metres (23,000 ft)?
... that Mae Jemison (pictured), the first black woman in space, worked at a Cambodian refugee camp in Thailand while in medical school and was a medical officer for the Peace Corps before becoming an astronaut?
... that Valentina Tereshkova (pictured), ~~the first woman in space, is also the youngest woman to ever go to space and the only woman to ever do it solo?~~
- ... that Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova (pictured), the first woman in space, spent almost 3 days in orbit, surpassing the combined flight time of all Americans that flew before her?
- ... that first woman in space, Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova (pictured) and Valery Bykovsky, in a longer concurrent spaceflight, each surpassed the combined flight time of all Americans before them?
... that two Russian tortoises were among the first Earthlings that flew around the Moon and returned safely to Earth on Zond 5?

Alternate

... that Luna 2, on its way to becoming the first human-made object to make contact with the Moon, also made the first direct measurement of solar wind flux from outside Earth's magnetosphere?

In the news

Freddie Freeman

In baseball, the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the New York Yankees to win the World Series (MVP Freddie Freeman pictured).
Flooding in Spain kills more than 200 people.
The Social Democrats, led by Vilija Blinkevičiūtė, win the Lithuanian parliamentary election after the second voting round.
In the Japanese general election, the LDP-led ruling coalition loses its majority in the House of Representatives.

On this day

July 21: Belgian National Day (1831)

Depiction of the Ciompi Revolt

625 – Paulinus was consecrated as the first bishop of York by Justus, the archbishop of Canterbury.
1378 – Unrepresented labourers revolted and violently took over the government of the Republic of Florence (depicted), demanding that they be granted political office.
1946 – After weeks of unrest, rioters lynched Bolivian president Gualberto Villarroel, desecrating and hanging his corpse in the streets of La Paz.
1959 – The inaugural International Mathematical Olympiad, the leading mathematical competition for pre-university students, began in Romania.
1977 – Libyan forces carried out a raid at Sallum, sparking a four-day war with Egypt.

John Atta Mills (b. 1944)
Claus von Stauffenberg (d. 1944)
Jimmie Foxx (d. 1967)
Lettice Curtis (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 lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin landed Eagle on July 20, at 20:17:40 UTC, in Mare Tranquillitatis, while command module pilot Michael Collins remained on Columbia in lunar orbit. Armstrong was the first to exit the spacecraft, stepping onto the surface about six hours later, on July 21, at 02:56:15 UTC; nineteen minutes later, Aldrin joined him on extravehicular activity, lasting 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 iconic 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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