55 Years After Apollo 11's Historic Moonwalk

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, 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 the Cold War for the Soviet Union and while Washington was engaged in a bloody war with the communists in Vietnam.

The road to the moon was paved with both innovation and intense geopolitical rivalry. The space race began in earnest in 1957 with the Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik, the first artificial satellite. This catalyzed the United States to accelerate its own space program, which paved the way for possibly the most exciting and drawn-out race in history.

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.