Google Doodle celebrates 50 years of Moon landing, animation shows Apollo 11's journey to Moon and back

Google Doodle celebrates the 50th anniversary of NASA’s successful Apollo 11 moon landing. In a commemorative video, the Google Doodle narrates Apollo 11’s journey starting from its launch to successful landing. In an animated video, it can be seen how NASA's Saturn V rocket carrying all three astronauts blasted off from Florida's Kennedy Space Center.

It has been 50 years of NASA’s Apollo Mission widely referred as the biggest achievement of science till date. On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the surface of Moon. Expressing what it means to humanity, Armstrong said, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

Along with Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin and Michael Collins were the other astronauts chosen for the mission.   

To quote command module pilot Michael Collins, “We crew felt the weight of the world on our shoulders, we knew that everyone would be looking at us, friend or foe.”

Their spacecraft took four days to reach the Moon, before its lunar module, known as “Eagle,” touched the lunar surface on July 20, 1969. Armstrong emerged a few hours later.

The astronauts returned to earth on July 25, 1969 paving a way for many scientific discoveries following up the successful mission.

Apollo astronauts collected 842 pounds (382 kilograms) of rocks and soil during their six missions to the Moon between 1969 and 1972 and brought it all back to Earth. Studying Apollo rocks has given scientists an understanding of how the Moon was created, roughly at the same time as Earth some 4.3 to 4.4 billion years ago.

Armstrong's first step onto the lunar surface was broadcast on live TV to a worldwide audience. Apollo 11 effectively ended the Space Race and fulfilled a national goal proposed in 1961 by US President John F. Kennedy: "before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth."