The Moon Part 3

Before I tell you the next thing, I have to tell you about the ocean tides.

Sometimes, the ocean is high. The water is up close. This is called high tide.

Other times, the ocean is low. The water is farther away. This is called low tide.

Two times a day, the tide comes in. Two times a day, the tide goes out.

The Moon is the closest celestial body to Earth. It is closer than all the planets.

The Moon and the Earth both have gravity. They pull things to themselves.

So the Moon pulls on the oceans of the Earth!

The Moon’s gravity pulls on our oceans. This causes the tides!

But the Sun has gravity too, and it pulls on our oceans too. So during full moons and new moons, our tides are highest.

In the 1960s, human beings visited the Moon six times. This was an American program called the Apollo program.

The first mission that went all the way to the Moon was called Apollo 11.

On Apollo 11, three men flew to the Moon,

and two men landed on it, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.

One man flew around the moon in the Command Module, Michael Collins.

The huge rocket that took these brave men to the moon was called the Saturn V.

There was a countdown, which went like this:

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, blast off!

Then the huge rocket took off!

But it really looked like this, when it took off.

Video of the launch

It left the Earth and went up toward the Moon!

As the rocket went up, rocket parts, called stages, dropped off as they used up their fuel.

When the astronauts got to outer space, outside the atmosphere, the Earth looked like this.

Then the Apollo spacecraft went on to the Moon!

When the spacecraft arrived at the Moon,

it began to orbit, or go around, the Moon.

They could see the Earth from the Moon.

Then the Command Module separated from the Lunar Module—which was called the Eagle. The Command Module kept orbiting the Moon.

The Command Module

The Lunar Module, the Eagle

Then the Eagle went down (descended) to the Moon! Look at a video

Neil Armstrong stepped down from the Eagle, and said, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Watch a video

Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin left footprints,

they put an American flag on the Moon,

and they collected rocks and dust from the Moon.

They also used equipment to see if there were “moonquakes,” just as there are earthquakes on Earth.

The astronauts took pictures of each other on the Moon.

Back on Earth, engineers helped and watched from “Mission Control” in Houston, Texas.

Then, the Eagle went back up (ascended) to the Command Module.

The Command Module and the Eagle docked (joined together).

The astronauts came back to Earth

and “splashed down” in the ocean.

The End See also