MOSCOW, July 20. /TASS/. Russian state corporation Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin has congratulated NASA head Jim Bridenstine on the 50th anniversary of the moon landing in a message published on the Roscosmos website on Saturday.

"50 years ago Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins put themselves into the world’s space exploration history books. They joined the crew of the great pioneers, who dared to set off on a journey to the unknown in order to push the boundaries of the reachable world for the humanity," Rogozin wrote.

"We should also pay tribute to all NASA engineering personnel having passed through a series of failures and tragedies managed to create "Saturn-5", the world’s first super heavy-lift launch vehicle, as well as the "Apollo" spacecraft. Their joint efforts, skills and knowledge turned into a reliable rocket and space system, which allowed implementing the "Soyuz-Apollo" project in the following years," the Roscosmos chief continued.

"I do believe that our common goal is to be worthy of our great predecessors, to enrich their heritage and overcome all the difficulties on the Earth in order to continue the expansion of the humanity into space," he concluded.

On July 20, 1969, NASA astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin first set foot on the surface of the moon. On Saturday, the new International Space Station long-term expedition will set off towards the Earth’s orbit wearing a patch commemorating the Apollo-11 mission.