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Apollo 11 Mission image - Astronaut bootprint on the lunar surface
A close-up view of an astronaut’s bootprint in the lunar soil, photographed with a 70mm lunar surface camera during the Apollo 11 extravehicular activity (EVA) on the moon. While astronauts Neil A. Armstrong, commander, and Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., lunar module pilot, descended in the Lunar Module (LM) “Eagle” to explore the Sea of Tranquility region of the moon, astronaut Michael Collins, command module pilot, remained with the Command and Service Modules (CSM) “Columbia” in lunar orbit.

Neil A. Armstrong

First Man to Walk on the Moon

Learn more about Astronaut Neil A. Armstrong, including when he was selected by NASA to be an astronaut, his flight experience, education, background and more. 

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S64-31453 (1964) --- Astronaut Neil A. Armstrong.
Astronaut Neil A. Armstrong.

We Remember Our Fallen Astronauts

Remembering Columbia

The Columbia STS-107 mission lifted off on Jan. 16, 2003, for a 17-day science mission featuring numerous microgravity experiments. Upon reentering the atmosphere on Feb. 1, 2003,  Columbia suffered a catastrophic failure due to a breach that occurred during launch when falling foam from the external tank struck the underside of the left wing.

The orbiter and its seven crewmembers (Rick D. Husband, William C. McCool, David Brown, Laurel Blair Salton Clark, Michael P. Anderson, Ilan Ramon, and Kalpana Chawla) were lost approximately 15 minutes before Columbia was scheduled to touch down at Kennedy Space Center. The Columbia Accident Investigation Board was created to determine the cause of the Columbia accident and to recommend ways to improve the safety of space shuttle flights.

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bhm_anderson_sts-107_inflight_crew_photo
The STS-107 crewmembers pose for their traditional in-flight crew portrait aboard the space shuttle Columbia. From the left (top row), wearing blue shirts, are astronauts David M. Brown, mission specialist; William C. McCool, pilot; and Michael P. Anderson, payload commander. From the left (bottom row), wearing red shirts, are astronauts Kalpana Chawla, mission specialist; Rick D. Husband, mission commander; Laurel B. Clark, mission specialist; and Ilan Ramon, payload specialist, representing the Israeli Space Agency. On Feb. 1, 2003, the seven crewmembers were lost with the Space Shuttle Columbia over North Texas. This picture was on a roll of unprocessed film later recovered by searchers from the debris.
NASA