Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed the lunar module Eagle in the Moon's Sea of Tranquillity. Armstrong became the first human to step onto another celestial body, while Michael Collins remained in lunar orbit. The mission was watched by a vast global television audience.

The landing transformed the Moon from an unreachable poetic emblem into a visited landscape. Poets responded with wonder, scepticism and ecological reflection, newly able to imagine the fragile Earth as a small world seen from space.