Neil Armstrong took his small step onto the surface of the Moon on 20 July 1969. It was the most dramatic moment in humankind's long history of fascination with what we now call 'space' - and in the history of live television. Six hundred million people tuned in. Thirty years on, Channel 4's Walking on the Moon season recaptures the excitement by revisiting the live coverage. Other programmes look at: the background to the space race and the stories that NASA kept quiet; the race to produce cheaper, reusable spacecraft; how we could exploit the Moon's resources; and the evidence of conspiracy theorists who believe the Moon landings were faked in a television studio.
This Walking on the Moon timeline takes you from the creation of the Moon about four and a half billion years ago through the history of astronomers' discoveries to the development of rocket science and the Apollo programme and finally to speculations about what the future may hold. There are entries on the conspiracy theory, on folklore, myths and religious beliefs about the Moon, on how the Moon has featured in fiction and other art forms, and on various kinds of Moon trivia. And, since it's said that even if you experienced the sixties you won't have a clue what happened, there's an A-Z of 1969 to remind you of what else was going on. Some entries are snippets; others contain extensive information. Explore!