55 years after first moon landing when a 'small step for man' became a 'giant leap for mankind'

55 YEARS after man walked on the moon, those responsible for that "one giant leap for mankind" launched a space program that captured America's imagination.

As commander of the Apollo 11 mission, Neil Armstrong became the first human to set foot on the moon on July 20, 1969. As he stepped on the dusty surface, Armstrong said: "That's one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind."

Those words endure as one of the best-known quotes in the English language.

Armstrong died in 2012. His family released a statement: "The next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink."

The Apollo 11 astronauts' euphoric moonwalk provided Americans with a sense of achievement in the space race with Cold War for the Soviet Union and while Washington was engaged in a bloody war with the communists in Vietnam.

American astronaut Michael Collins, who as pilot of the Apollo 11 command module stayed behind on July 20, 1969, while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin traveled to the lunar surface to become the first humans to walk on the moon.

Nearly one-fifth of the world's population had abandoned work or defied sleep to watch the astronaut's first exploration of the moon at 2.52 am GMT on July 21, 1969.

To date, spacecraft from just four other countries have ever landed on the moon - the former Soviet Union, China, India and, mostly recently, just last month, Japan. The United States is the only one ever to have sent humans to the lunar surface.

Read the latest news here