In pictures: Apollo 11

Liftoff: the Apollo 11 team leaves Cape Canaveral aboard the Saturn V launch vehicle on July 16 1969. Michael Collins describes it as "like a nervous novice driving a wide car down a narrow alley - you know you've got to make corrections, you're not quite sure. You zig this way and that way." Photograph: Think Film/Everett/Rex Features

Earthrise over the moon, one of the most spectacular sights witnessed by the men who went into space. Photograph: Nasa

Buzz Aldrin, photographed on the moon by fellow astronaut Neil Armstrong. Photograph: Neil Armstrong/Nasa

Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin erect the US flag at Tranquility Base on July 20 1969. Photograph: EPA

Michael Collins, Apollo 11 Command module pilot, stayed in orbit while Armstrong and Aldrin made the lunar landing. Collins recalls: "I discovered later that I was described as the loneliest man ever in the universe." Photograph: Nasa

The lunar module returns from the moon to rejoin the command module, which remained in orbit. Photograph: Nasa

Mission accomplished: Collins, Armstrong and Aldrin in the quarantine trailer speak with President Richard Nixon on their return to Earth. Photograph: Nasa

Michael Collins in the documentary, In The Shadow of The Moon: "To me the marvel of it is that it all worked like clockwork. Nobody messed up, even I didn't make mistakes." Photograph: Nasa

Buzz Aldrin today. The former Apollo astronaut is now chairman of the ShareSpace Foundation. Photograph: EPA

Neil Armstrong, the first human to set foot on the moon, seen here in Valencia, Spain, in July 2005. Armstrong, who is now famously reclusive, did not participate in the film. Photograph: Jose Jordan/Getty