Wernher von Braun, America Space Program

Von Braun's gravestone mentions Psalm 19:1: "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Apollo program director Sam Phillips was quoted as saying that he did not think that the United States would have reached the Moon as quickly as it did without von Braun's help. Later, after discussing it with colleagues, he amended this to say that he did not believe the United States would have reached the Moon at all. Wernher von Braun was born on March 23, 1912 in the small town of Wirsitz, in the Posen Province, of the former German Empire. He was the second of three sons. He belonged to a noble family, inheriting the German title of Freiherr (equivalent to Baron). His father, a civil servant Magnus Freiherr von Braun (1878–1972), served as a Minister of Agriculture during the Weimar Republic. His mother, Emmy von Quistorp (1886–1959), could trace her ancestry through both parents to medieval European royalty and was a descendant of Philip III of France, Valdemar I of Denmark, Robert III of Scotland, and Edward III of England. In 1930, he attended the Technische Hochschule Berlin, where he joined the Spaceflight Society. In 1933, von Braun was working on his creative doctorate when the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP, or Nazi Party) came to power in a coalition government in Germany; rocketry almost immediately moved onto the national agenda. During Hitler years he became a member of both Nazi party and SS but was briefly arrested in 1944. The Soviet Army was about 160 km (99 mi) from Peenemünde in the spring of 1945. Unwilling to go to the Soviets, von Braun and his staff decided to try to surrender to the Americans. Von Braun fabricated documents and transported 500 of his affiliates to the area around Mittelwerk, where they resumed their work. For fear of their works being destroyed by the SS, von Braun ordered the blueprints to be hidden in an abandoned mine shaft in the Harz mountain range. In April 1945, as the Allied forces advanced deeper into Germany, the engineering team was moved by train into the town of Oberammergau in the Bavarian Alps where they were closely guarded by the SS with orders to execute the team if they were about to fall into enemy hands. However, von Braun managed to convince his SS supervisor, Major Kummer, to order the dispersion of the group into nearby villages so that they would not be an easy target for U.S. bombers. Von Braun and a large number of the engineering team subsequently made it to Austria. On May 2, 1945, upon finding an American private from the U.S. 44th Infantry Division, von Braun's brother and fellow rocket engineer, Magnus, approached the soldier on a bicycle, calling out in broken English: "My name is Magnus von Braun. My brother invented the V-2. We want to surrender.

Apollo 11 was the first spaceflight that landed humans on the Moon. Americans Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on July 20, 1969, at 20:18 UTC. Armstrong became the first to step onto the lunar surface six hours later on July 21 at 02:56 UTC; Aldrin joined him about 20 minutes later. They spent about two and a quarter hours together outside the spacecraft and collected 47.5 pounds (21.5 kg) of lunar material for return to Earth. The third member of the mission, Michael Collins, piloted the command spacecraft alone in lunar orbit ​until Armstrong and Aldrin returned to it just under a day later for the trip back to Earth. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_11

The mission plan of Apollo 11 was to land two men on the lunar surface and return them safely to Earth. The spacecraft carried a crew of three: Mission Commander Neil Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins, and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., was launched by a Saturn V from Cape Kennedy on July 16, 1969, and after three days until they entered lunar orbit. Collins was awaiting on Lunar orbit while the Eagle Lunar Module with Armstrong and Aldrin and has landed in Moon's Mare Tranquillitatis at 3:17 p.m. EST on July 20, 1969. Immediately after landing on the Moon, Armstrong and Aldrin prepared the LM for liftoff as a contingency measure. Following the meal, the astronauts began preparations for the descent to the lunar surface. Armstrong emerged from the spacecraft first. While descending, he released the Modularized Equipment Stowage Assembly on which the surface television camera was stowed, and the camera recorded humankind's first step on the Moon. A sample of lunar surface material was collected and stowed to assure that, if a contingency required an early end to the planned surface activities, samples of lunar surface material would be returned to Earth. Astronaut Aldrin subsequently descended to the lunar surface. The astronauts collected lunar samples, deployed several experiments, and made photographs of the lunar surface. Two and a quarter hours later, the astronauts reentered the Lunar Module, after which the astronauts slept. The ascent from the lunar surface began 21 hours and 36 minutes after the lunar landing. In about four days, the Command Module entered Earth atmosphere and landed in the Pacific Ocean.