JULY 20 marks 45 years since mankind first put foot on the moon. It’s one of history’s monumental moments and there are some fascinating facts behind the event.

Commander Neil Alden Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins, and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin Eugene “Buzz” Aldrin Jr boldly blasted off this blue marble with a course set for the moon. They would be the very first people in history to land there.

As expected with such a mission things weren’t particularly straight forward. Here’s what you didn’t know about the Apollo 11 landing:

• The Saturn V rocket that propelled the crew to the moon still remains the tallest and heaviest ever built. It measured in at 363 feet and had to be assembled in what was the largest building (by volume) at the Vehicle Assembly Building in the Kennedy Space Centre — a building so big clouds formed inside of it.

• It was a hairy moment when coming in to land. A flat area of the moon called the Sea of Tranquillity was picked for the landing site but on approach the automatic landing system was guiding the module towards a boulder littered crater beyond. Armstrong immediately took manual control to pilot the craft himself avoiding a crash. It’s been said there was only 30 seconds of fuel left when they finally got to the surface.

• Neil Armstrong’s ‘small step’ quote could be one of the most famous lines in history but he actually stuffed up his delivery. He was meant to say: “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind”. He forgot the ‘a’ but it worked out okay we think.

• The first drink consumed on the moon was wine. No, the crew didn’t pop a few corks to celebrate, Buzz Aldrin — a strict Presbyterian Christian — actually took a mini communion kit without NASA knowing.

• While three men left Earth, only two actually walked to the Moon. Collins being the module pilot was the unlucky one to stay in the orbiting Columbia craft while Aldrin and Armstrong took off in the lunar module to the surface. In total the astronauts walked around one kilometre on the surface. The foot imprints they left are still preserved there today.

• The moon has a distinct smell. After walking around the surface then returning to the lunar module where Aldrin and Armstrong removed their spacesuits they could smell and even taste the moon dust on their clothing. They described it as ‘spent gunpowder’ and ‘wet ashes’.

• There has been plenty of debate as to why Neil Armstrong was the first man to step onto the surface. It appears it was all down to seating in the lunar module. He was sat next to the door and logistically the first to exit. Despite reports, Aldrin holds no bitterness about this.

• Despite millions of dollars of technology invested in the programme, a good old Biro ball-point pen came to the crew’s rescue. Upon return to the lunar module to return Aldrin broke the ignition switch. Without this they couldn’t activate the ascent engines and could have been stuck on the moon. But, industrious Buzz had the ingenious idea to jam a pen into the switch and miraculously it worked.

• The television audience for the event was an estimated 600 million, which held the record for 12 years until the royal wedding of Princess Diana to Prince Charles in 1981. This grabbed a TV audience of 750 million.

• NASA deliberated the idea of putting the US flag on the moon. A council was set up to discuss the political implications of such a move as nobody actually owns the Moon. However despite the debate America went with the stars and stripes — perhaps as a signal of power to the Soviet Union who were involved in the Cold War with the US and also rivals in the space race. But the joke fell on the US as the flag was blown over by the thrusters of the lunar module upon takeoff.

• President Nixon had a speech prepared in case of the mission’s fatal failure. It was called “In Event of Disaster” and began with the line: “fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay to rest in peace”.