The First Human Step

Six and a half hours after landing, Armstrong opened the hatch and descended the ladder's nine rungs. On the way down, he deployed the MESA television camera — and 600 million people watched live as a human boot touched another world for the first time.

At 2:56 UTC (July 21), Armstrong set his left foot on the lunar dust and spoke a line he had not prepared in advance: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." He described the surface as a fine powder that clung to his boot soles like charcoal dust.

Nineteen minutes later, Aldrin joined him, summing up the lunar landscape with the words "magnificent desolation." Both quickly learned to move in one-sixth gravity — a kangaroo-style hop proved the most effective technique.