Apollo 11 anniversary: Astronaut Michael Collins takes you on historic Moon landing journey in Google Doodle

Google, on Friday, marked the golden anniversary of the week that saw man's historic moon-landing with an interactive video doodle.

The video doodle opens with a count-down for a rocket launch, followed by a voice-over by Michael Collins, Apollo 11's command module pilot, who narrates the story of the 'adventure' he went on 50 years ago as the video depicts the events.

It was on July 16, 1969, that 'after a big breakfast' the Saturn V rocket lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center's launch pad 39A at Cape Canaveral in Florida.

It had taken over 400,000 people almost a decade of work to fulfill President John F. Kennedy's dream of landing a man on the Moon before the end of the 1960s.


It was this week, five decades ago, that Neil Armstrong and Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin landed on the Moon as part of NASA's Apollo 11 mission, and set up the American flag there alongside a plaque that read, "Here men from planet Earth first set foot upon the Moon. July 1969 AD. We come in peace for all mankind."

Talking about their 8-day journey to the Moon and back, Collins explains that NASA worked with three antennas around the earth - in Spain, Australia and California for the mission. And at the time, the astronauts thought their computers were 'very sophisticated but in fact they had less computing powers than what we carry in our pockets today'.

While Collins describes the first sight of the Moon up close as 'a magnificent spectacle'.

"The sun was coming around it, cascading and making a golden halo.

"But it was nothing compared to the sight of the tiny Earth. The Earth was the main show. The Earth was it," the 88-year-old astronaut says.

On July 20, 1969, after a tense descent in which they almost ran out of fuel, Armstrong and Aldrin conducted a two-and-a-half-hour extravehicular activity (EVA) on the Moon. With Armstrong saying his now famous line, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

Meanwhile Collins circled the Moon in the command module - and said that even though he was 'all alone but not lonesome', as there were three billion plus 2 people on one side, and him on the other. Collins revealed that he even managed to have hot coffee while there.

Mission accomplished, the trio arrived back on Earth on July 24 and landed in the Pacific ocean.

In the 50 years since, no one has returned to the Moon, and Mars seems even more of a less attainable dream.

Watch the full doodle video here.