CONTENTS EARTH’S NEAREST NEIGHBOR 4 RACE TO THE MOON 6 NEIL ARMSTRONG 8 BUZZ ALDRIN 10 MICHAEL COLLINS 12 TRAINING 14 ROCKET LAUNCH 16 TOUCH AND GO 18 ONE SMALL STEP 20 FIRST LOOK 22 EXPLORING 24 COMING HOME AS HEROES 26 MORE TRIPS TO THE MOON 28 GLOSSARY 31 INDEX 32 WEBSITES 32
EARTH’S NEAREST NEIGHBOR Have you ever looked up at the moon and wondered what it would be like to be there It’s very different from Earth and it’s very far away Scientists think Earth’s moon was formed about 4 5 billion years ago It’s an average of about 238,000 miles 383,023 km away from Earth and it’s only about a quarter as large as our planet Because it’s so much smaller the gravity is much less than on Earth so everything weighs less than it does here Expedition Report Days on the moon are very long about 708 hours That means it gets very hot during the day as hot as 273 Fahrenheit 4 134 Celsius It can be as cold as 243 Fahrenheit 153 Celsius at night
Anyone can look at the moon but only 12 men can say they’ve actually been there Only 12 people all Americans have ever set foot on the moon The first mission to reach the moon left Earth on July 16 1969 with three men on board This was the Apollo 11 mission 5
