US remembers Apollo 11 mission 50 years on

Fifty years ago, astronaut Buzz Aldrin and Niel Armstrong, took the first steps on the moon. The moment unified hundreds of millions of people worldwide in a way never seen before or since.

A mighty Saturn V rocket set off from Florida carrying the first humans to the Moon, a veteran of the Apollo 11 crew returned to the fabled launch pad on Tuesday to commemorate the event that defined an era.

Astronaut Michael Collins, who orbited the moon as Armstrong and Aldrin explored the surface,said, “how often can you get people around our globe to agree on anything? Hardly ever.”

The now-88-year-old added, “It was a wonderful achievement in the sense that people everywhere around the planet applauded it: north, south, east, west, rich, poor, Communist, whatever.”

The moment was the result of eight years of work by more than 400,000 people and billions of dollars. After six more missions, the Apollo programme was ended in 1972.

Fifty years later, the United States is at it again. This time, aiming to send astronauts back to the moon by 2024, four years earlier than initially planned.