July 24, 1969: Apollo 11 returns home

Today in the history of astronomy, the first people to walk on the Moon splashdown back on Earth. | Published: July 24, 2026 President Nixon greets the Apollo 11 astronauts during their quarantine after returning to Earth. Credit: NASA/JSC Having launched on July 16, 1969, and landed on the Moon on July 20, the Apollo 11 astronauts returned home and splashed down in the Pacific on July 24, 1969. In a historically momentous trip, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin had become the first people to step onto the Moon. (The third member of their crew, Michael Collins, stayed in the command module Columbia.) In addition to delivering Armstrong’s famous line, “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind,” the astronauts gathered lunar samples, took photos and video on the surface, and deployed instruments including the first lunar seismometer. After nearly 22 hours on the Moon, the lunar module Eagle departed, rejoined Columbia, and began the journey back to Earth. The astronauts were quarantined for three weeks after splashdown — standard practice until after Apollo 14, in case of lunar microorganisms. Elisa Neckar is senior production editor of Astronomy magazine, and the editor of the Today in the History of Astronomy feature on Astronomy.com.