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The Rhodesia Herald, July 21, 1969
First two men land on Moon
Men landed on the moon tonight — and for the first time in the history of mankind told Earth what they had discovered.

A dream of the ages had come true through two American astronauts, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, as they settled down on soil no man had touched before.

In one of the most fantastic adventures history has known, they brought their spacecraft Eagle down on the Moon’s Sea of Tranquillity after a dangerous and difficult descent from the Apollo-11 command ship.

The official landing time was given as 10.17 pm (Rhodesian time). Armstrong and Aldrin, 240 000 miles away from their home planet called Earth and their nation, the United States of America, came to a dusty landing on the Moon’s surface.

“Tranquillity Base here,” said Armstrong. “Eagle has landed”

The first minute on the lunar surface were mostly silent, as Armstrong and Aldrin quickly readied everything in their spider-like space taxi for an emergency blast-off from the moon, if necessary.

Armstrong’s first description of the landing area was terse. He apologised for taking five minutes longer than planned in his landing.

LESSONS FOR TODAY

• Neil Armstrong was the first man to land on the moon.
• 600 million people, a fifth of Earth’s population, watched live television transmission of the historic event from the barren lunar landscape.
• 52 years since Armstrong shot to the moon with Apollo 11, space flights have become commonplace, with various nationalities sending astronauts into space.
• Recently, the space travels have been joined by the billionaire club, who are using their wealth to follow a new pastime — promotion of space tourism.
• On July 11, UK billionaire Sir Richard Branson flew into space and back in his Virgin Galactica.
• Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest man flew into space and back yesterday.
• The competition to go into space shows how the industry has grown over the decades, its financial promotion, thanks to developments in science and technology.
• But there is an important question that begs: In a world ravaged by problems — disease, poverty, death and climate change-induced challenges, why would billions of dollars be blown up into space to satisfy some egos? Where is the moral, and who is benefiting?