‘We Did It’: Relive 1st Moon Landing With Google’s Animated Short

Google Doodle celebrates 50 years since first moon landing.

(Photo Courtesy: Google/Screengrab)

It has been 50 years since humans landed on the Moon. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin created history by becoming the first humans to land on the moon on 20 July 1969. They were accompanied by Michael Collins, the third astronaut on the mission who only hovered around the moon in the Apollo 11 command module.

“Here men from planet earth first set foot upon the moon, July 1969 AD. We came in peace for all mankind.” 

Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin 

Google’s latest doodle marks this historic achievement by mankind, with an animated video of the Apollo 11 mission. The video is narrated by Michael Collins himself, who goes on to talk about the mission – how many people involved, the first sight of the moon and the time alone on the rover, while Armstrong and Aldrin were on the surface.

The four-minute-long video has Collins talking about the 400,000 people involved in the mission, the first glance at the moon, around which sunlight had formed a halo. However, according to Collins, what stole the show was the tiny earth at a distance. “Earth was it. It was the sight,” he says.

He also narrates the time he spent alone in the command module, saying that there were 3 billion plus two people on one side, while he was on the other.

The Apollo 11 mission returned to the planet on 24 July 1969. The spacecraft landed in the Pacific Ocean and the three astronauts on board – Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins –were made instant heroes.

In the Google video, Collins says he was very fascinated with the fact that everywhere they went, people said “we did it.”