1969 in spaceflight 1969 in spaceflight 1969 saw humanity step onto another world for the first time. On 21 July 1969, the Apollo 11 Lunar Module, "Eagle," landed on the moon's surface with two astronauts aboard. Days later the crew of three returned safely to Earth, satisfying U.S. President John F. Kennedy's 1962 challenge of 25 May 1961, that "this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth." There were four Apollo missions in total in 1969, three of which traveled to the moon,
First on the Moon is a brief clip showing Kharlamov piloting the vehicle, presumably on final approach to the Moon. Following that is an equally brief panorama of a lunar landscape with the capsule or lander (it's unclear whether this was a direct ascent Moon landing) resting on the surface, apparently taken by Kharlamov during lunar EVA. Both scenes are shown as stills on the movie's cover. Then there is a short clip of the other cosmonauts walking through a hangar with the 1930s space program director, and the credits roll. The screenplay was written by Aleksandr Gonorovskiy and Ramil Yamaleyev, and is loosely