This week marks the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, when humans touched down on the moon's surface for the first time.
On July 16, 1969, astronauts Neil A Armstrong, Edwin E 'Buzz' Aldrin, and Michael Collins launched into space aboard Apollo 11 with the intention of landing man on the moon.
Four days later, Armstrong and Aldrin made history when they stepped foot on the lunar surface as millions of people back home sat glued to their TV screens to watch the pivotal moment.
"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind," Armstrong said as he marked the historic occasion.
Just half a century later, the list of people to have ever walked on the moon is still tiny - only 12 have ever accomplished the feat, with the last landing taking place just three years after the first in 1972.
Here is all you need to know about the moon landings in 1969.
What happened in the build-up to the Apollo 11 mission?
At the height of the Cold War in 1957, the Soviet Union sparked a space race with the US after it launched the first Sputnik 1 satellite into space.
By the time John F Kennedy became president in 1961, the Soviet Union made the first manned spaceflight and many Americans feared they were trailing behind technologically.
To salvage some national pride, and to boost the perception that America was the pre-eminent world superpower, President Kennedy made it his mission to send a man to the moon before the decade was out.
The US devoted billions of dollars of resources into Project Apollo, which was run by the newly-created space agency Nasa, in an effort to land people on the moon and by early 1969 had made a number of successful spaceflights in the build-up to the landing.
Who were the astronauts on the Apollo 11 mission?
Three astronauts were chosen to take part in the historic flight - Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins.
Armstrong, the mission commander, was a 38-year-old civilian research pilot who had served in the US Navy, and had joined NASA's astronaut programme in 1962.
Colleague Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin was 39 and a member of the US Air Force. On the mission he served as the lunar module pilot, responsible for piloting the Eagle lunar module to the moon and back to the command module.
He was the first astronaut with a doctoral degree and the first to hold a religious ceremony on the moon.
Michael Collins was the third member of the Apollo 11 team. As the command module pilot, he was tasked with piloting the command module - which meant he stayed behind in orbit while Armstrong and Aldrin landed on the moon.
He was a member of the air force when he became an astronaut before retiring in 1970.
The Apollo 11 flight and moon landing
On July 16, 1969 Apollo 11 blasted off from Cape Kennedy at 9.32am EDT (1.32 GMT). A Saturn V rocket carried both the command and lunar modules into space and three days later Apollo 11 when into orbit around the moon.
Finally, at 4.16pm on July 20 - more than 100 hours after they left earth - the lunar module Eagle touched down on the moon. Six hours later, Neil Armstrong became the first man in history to step foot on the surface of the moon.
As he stepped onto the moon he uttered his immortal words to the millions watching at home: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind".
Buzz Aldrin joined him 20 minutes later and the two men spent more than two-and-a-half hours on the moon, collecting samples, taking photographs, conducting scientific tests and planting an American flag.
The two men then rested in Eagle before successfully docking with the command module. After the lunar module Eagle was jettisoned, the crew began their jouney home and they successfully splashed down in the Pacific Ocean at 12.50pm on July 24.
How many moon landings have there been?
So far, only 12 people have ever walked on the moon, including Armstrong and Aldrin, and they have all been American.
Only five more successful lunar landings were ever made in a period of just three years from 1969-1972.
The last people to have walked on the moon were Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt, who flew on the Apollo 17 mission.
They left the surface on December 14, 1972 and since then, no-one else has accomplished the feat.
Who has walked on the moon?
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Neil Armstrong - Apollo 11, 1969
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Buzz Aldrin - Apollo 11, 1969
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Pete Conrad - Apollo 12, 1969
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Alan Bean - Apollo 12, 1969
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Alan Shepard, Apollo 14, 1971
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Edgar Mitchell - Apollo 14, 1971
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David Scott - Apollo 15, 1971
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James Irwin - Apollo 15, 1971
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John Young - Apollo 16, 1972
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Charles Duke - Apollo 16, 1972
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Gene Cernan - Apollo 17, 1972
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Harrison Schmitt - Apollo 17, 1972
