Landing on the Moon

Lesson Plan - Get It!

Audio:

If you've taken the previous Related Lessons in our The Moon series, found in the right-hand sidebar, you're ready to go there and see it for yourself!

The Earth’s moon is two hundred and fifty thousand miles away!

This distance is like circling the Earth ten times around the equator. Even with the moon being so far away, people have still found a way to visit the moon. In this lesson, you will learn about who visited the moon and how they got there.

• What do you think the person below does for work?

Tell your parent or teacher.

The person pictured below is an astronaut. An astronaut is a person that is trained to travel into space on a spacecraft. Astronauts go through special training. They learn how to fly rocket ships, fix parts of the rocket ship, and survive in space.

Astronaut training is not easy! Once an astronaut has gone through all the necessary training, the astronaut will be ready to travel to space for the first time.

On July 16th, 1969, the Apollo 11 spacecraft left Earth on a mission to land on the moon. Aboard the Apollo 11, a crew of three trained astronauts awaited their arrival on the moon. Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin traveled on the Apollo 11 rocket until July 20th, 1969. On this special day, Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon!

While the men were on the moon, they collected moon rocks to bring back to the Earth. They also planted the American flag into the ground. This flag still stands today. Since there's no weather or wind on the moon, even their footprints are still visible today!

• Would you like to see the first moon landing?

Excellent! In the Got It? section, you will get to watch a video of the actual Apollo 11 moon landing, but before moving on to the next section, tell your parent or teacher the name of the first man to walk on the moon.