Apollo 11 Anniversary -- 1st Moonwalk

Thirty eight years ago on the same day, July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, and Michael Collins riding Apollo 11 landed on the moon. It was one of the pivotal moments in mankind's history.

More than half a billion people watched, when Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon and said these golden words before taking his first steps on the moon: "That's one small step for (a) man; one giant leap for mankind."

The images taken by a camera mounted on a leg of the Apollo 11 lunar module were broadcast live to the US and the world. Among the crew only Armstrong and Aldrin spent a few hours on the moon, Michael Collins, orbited in the mission's primary command module. They planted a United States flag and a plaque that reads "Here men from the planet Earth first set foot on the Moon-July 1969 A.D.-We came in peace for all mankind."

After Armstrong and Aldrin's moon walk, there were some more moon missions with the last one in December 1972. USA and others could have pursued further after that time, but for some reasons there were no more missions to Moon. In 2004 U.S. President George Bush initiated a plan, starting with a robotic mission by 2008 to Moon and followed by a human mission by 2015. The plan is to set up a base in Moon for missions to Mars and beyond.

The year 2008 will be here soon, still no progress has been made, and I hope there are serious efforts to go there. An international effort and cooperation could achieve the mission faster, if they set aside commercial objectives aside. With all the money being spent on wars, humans could have gone many times to the Moon and back.

There is another controversy that some call this Moon landing and walk episode a hoax, maybe future missions can remove this doubt once for all. Whether it is true or not the first moon walk 38 years ago is one of the greatest moments in human history for the world.