Apollo 11 sent the first humans to the Moon. The launch took place on July 16, 1969, and on July 21 at 03:56 Norwegian time, Neil Armstrong took the first step on the Moon. On July 24, at 17:50, Norwegian time, the journey ended in the Pacific Ocean.

The Apollo spacecraft consisted of three parts. The command module at the very top housed the three astronauts. The second part was a service module with oxygen tanks, electrical supply and other technical systems, as well as a rocket engine. The third main part of the Apollo was the lunar lander, which was used to transport the two lunar explorers from lunar orbit and down to the surface of the Moon. The lunar lander in Apollo 11 had been named Eagle.

To get Apollo to the Moon, the world's most powerful launch vehicle, the Saturn V, was needed

. The craft with the three-stage Saturn V rocket and Apollo on top was a total of 111 meters high. The Saturn's first and second stages – more than half the height of the rocket – were only needed to reach orbit around the Earth. When these had burned out after a total of less than 15 minutes, they were disconnected and dumped into the atmosphere where they burned up. The third stage accelerated into orbit towards the Moon. At the top of the third stage was Apollo's lunar lander. On the way to the Moon, the Apollo command module and lunar lander were docked together by the astronauts. Then the Saturn 3 stages were also dumped. Only Apollo made it all the way to the Moon, and only the command module, the small capsule on top, returned to Earth, with the three lunar explorers on board.