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Apollo 11 launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 9:32 a.m. EDT on July 16, 1969, carrying commander Neil Armstrong, command module pilot Michael Collins and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin. Armstrong and Aldrin landed in the Sea of Tranquility on July 20 while Collins remained in lunar orbit. Armstrong became the first person to walk on the Moon, followed by Aldrin.

The mission splashed down in the Pacific on July 24 and was recovered by the USS Hornet. President Richard Nixon greeted the astronauts while they remained inside a mobile quarantine facility. The crew later appeared in a New York City ticker-tape parade in August.

The photographs trace preparations and precursor flights through launch, lunar operations and the return to Earth. They include Armstrong escaping a lunar landing research vehicle crash in May 1968, geology and simulator training, the Saturn V launch, mission control during the lunar excursion, Aldrin on the surface, a bootprint, the commemorative plaque, the lunar module ascent stage, splashdown, quarantine aboard the Hornet and the New York parade.

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Astronaut Neil Armstrong on a one-day Gemini VIII mission in March of 1966. Gemini was a stepping-stone project, working toward the upcoming Apollo missions.

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Astronaut Neil Armstrong, Apollo 11 mission commander, floats safely to the ground after an accident during a training session on May 6th, 1968. The Lunar Landing Research Vehicle (LLRV) exploded only seconds before while Armstrong was rehearsing a lunar landing at Ellington Air Force Base near the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC). This photo is an enlargement of a frame from a 16mm documentary motion picture recorded during the mishap.

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Neil Armstrong (left) watches Buzz Aldrin take a documentary photo of a sample during a training session on February 24th, 1969.

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Michael Collins works in a Command Module simulator (with an assistant beside him).

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Neil Armstrong poses for a photograph at the Lunar Landing Research Facility at NASA Langley in Virginia on February 12, 1969.

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An official NASA portrait of astronaut Buzz Aldrin.

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An aerial view of the 363 foot-tall (111 m) Apollo 11 Saturn V rocket rollout from the Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Building in Florida on May 20th, 1969.

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The Apollo 11 crew and Donald K. "Deke" Slayton look over charts during the traditional launch day breakfast of steak and eggs on July 16, 1969.

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A technician works atop the white room, through which the astronauts will enter the spacecraft, while other technicians look on from the launch tower at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on July 11, 1969.