“Hey diddle-diddle
The cat and the fiddle,
The cow jumped over the moon.
The little dog laughed to see such fun
And the dish ran away with the
spoon.”

— Anonymous

The grainy black-and-white television set in the corner of the living room was a magnet for all the family. We had watched, absolutely spellbound, as Apollo 11 successfully blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Kennedy Space Centre on July 16, 1969, and 'Mission Impossible', destination — the moon, intended to land human beings on its unknown surface for the very first time, got underway.

Now, four endless days of anticipation later, the moment had come when the Lunar Module 'Eagle' touched down on the dusty surface of that waxing and waning disc in the heavens that we children had previously been told was made of cheddar cheese and inhabited by a popular nursery rhyme figure The Man in the Moon, whose face one could see engraved on its mystical surface from time to time. However, the much speculated about myths and legends were about to be shattered.

The historic date — July 20, 1969, was engraved in our memories as the unimaginable became reality and Commander Neil Armstrong, in his cumbersome space suit, carefully descended the 'Eagles' ladder, one huge boot at a time as we waited for him to slip or be so petrified as to freeze in place. Neither of these happened and we were collectively overawed as he became the first man to set foot on the moon and 'Boldly went where no man had been before' to coin a phrase from Star Trek.

The special hi-tech camera mounted inside the Lunar Module beamed the amazing event live, straight into millions of homes around the planet earth, 240,000 miles away; as Armstrong majestically moved forward uttering the timeless words “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”. My grandmother cried!

The world cheered in ecstasy as history unfolded and fellow astronaut, Buzz Aldrin joined Armstrong in the lighter than air gravity where each and every single step they took send them floating above the dust and rock strewn surface.

The two astronauts spent approximately two and a half hours on the moon's surface where they carried out a range of experiments and collected dust and rock samples to bring back to earth for comprehensive analysis.

Back in 1961, the then American President Kennedy, addressing Congress on May 25, had demanded America to land a man on the moon and bring him safely back home again before 1970 and, with president Nixon at the helm, this had finally been achieved with an American flag planted on the moon for posterity.

The entire expedition was rooted in the fact that the then U.S.S.R. had succeeded in putting their first 'Sputnik' satellite into the orbit back in 1957 and America felt threatened by this event, immediately investing billions of dollars into beating the 'opposition' to the moon.

First came the 'Mercury' programme from 1959-1963, under which astronauts were put into space a total of six times. This was followed by 'Gemini' 1963-1966, when 10 crewed flights practiced rendezvousing in space in conjunction with the 11 'Apollo' flights from 1961-1972 and which, in 1969, took the first humans to the moon's surface.

The three-member crew of Apollo 11 had all undergone years of rigorous training prior to their mind-lowing mission yet, in some quarters, it was considered that the operation was premature and President Nixon had even prepared a moving speech to the nation announcing the deaths of these courageous astronauts if the worst should happen and the American government had also ordered the termination of live telecast if things appeared to be going wrong. There were to be no witnesses to a possible catastrophe and the nation would mourn their space heroes in fitting style.

Obviously, this didn't happen but, apparently it did come close as, according to Buzz Aldrin, the two men were almost stranded on the moon due to a broken switch on a crucial circuit breaker on the 'Eagle' which, unless repaired, meant they couldn't take off to rejoin the third astronaut, Michael Collins who was orbiting in the 'mother ship' Columbia awaiting their return. Improvisation came to the rescue and Aldrin rectified the fault by using a simple pen to make the necessary connection. The Eagle returned to the mother ship and all the three heroes returned safely to earth on July 24, 1969 — mission accomplished!