​Nasa shares historic photos from the month before Apollo 11 Moon landing

With Apollo 10's dress rehearsal in May 1969 complete, Apollo 11's mission to achieve president Kennedy’s 1961 Moon landing goal was just weeks away. Astronauts Neil A Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Edwin Aldrin, along with their backups, intensified their training and practiced lunar surface activities. (Photo: Nasa)

Mission control teams supported the simulations, and a successful countdown demonstration paved the way for the actual countdown to launch. Meanwhile, in the Pacific Ocean, US navy and Nasa teams readied for the astronauts' recovery upon their return from the moon and their subsequent post-flight quarantine. (Photo: Nasa)

Following their successful Moon landing dress rehearsal mission on May 26, 1969, Apollo 10 astronauts Thomas P Stafford, John W Young, and Eugene A Cernan shared their insights and lessons learned with the Apollo 11 Moon landing crew during postflight debriefs. (Photo: Nasa)

Samuel C Phillips, Apollo program director, and George E Mueller, associate administrator for Manned Space Flight at Nasa headquarters in Washington, DC, approved the directive outlining Apollo 11's primary goal: executing a manned lunar landing and safely returning. The crew's training and all preparatory activities throughout the agency were dedicated to achieving this challenging and unprecedented mission. (Photo: Nasa)

In the weeks just before their historic mission launch, Apollo 11 astronauts Armstrong, Collins, and Aldrin, alongside their backups Lovell, Anders, and Haise, were kept busy. Meanwhile, ground teams meticulously readied their rocket and spacecraft. The astronauts trained for every phase of their mission, conducting numerous sessions in Command Module (CM) and Lunar Module (LM) simulators at the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC). (Photo: Nasa)

Apollo 11 was preparing the first spacewalk on another celestial body and only the second spacewalk of the Apollo program. At training facilities at MSC and KSC, Armstrong and Aldrin practiced setting up a TV camera to show their activities on Earth during the 2.5-hour excursion, deploying the three science experiments, and collecting rock and regolith samples for return to Earth. (Photo: Nasa)

On June 6, Nasa leaders gave the green light for astronauts to resume training flights in the Lunar Landing Training Vehicle (LLTV) at Ellington Air Force Base. From June 14 to 16, Armstrong piloted LLTV-2 eight times to finish his training with it. Before this, he had already practiced simulated Moon landings 12 times using both the LLTV and its earlier version, the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle (LLRV). (Photo: Nasa)

On July 2, Nasa announced that Armstrong and Aldrin planned to leave three symbolic items on the Moon to mark their historic landing: an American flag, a commemorative plaque, and a silicon disc carrying messages from world leaders. The stainless steel plaque featured images of Earth's two hemispheres and an inscription,

'Here men from the planet Earth

First set foot on the Moon

July 1969 AD

We came in peace for all mankind'

(Photo: Nasa)

​“We selected these as being representative of the flight, the nation’s hope,” said Armstrong.
During a press conference on July 5 at the MSC auditorium, the Apollo 11 astronauts disclosed the names chosen for their spacecraft. They named their Command Module Columbia and the Lunar Module Eagle. (Photo: Nasa)

The Apollo 11 crew named their Lunar Module "Eagle" after the US symbol. Post-mission, they entered a 21-day quarantine at the Lunar Receiving Laboratory (LRL), where preparations were also made for handling moon rocks and samples. (Photo: Nasa)