On this day, 50 years ago, humanity first set foot upon another world, reaching out to a celestial body hundreds of thousands of miles from Earth. We repeated the feat a few more times over the few following years, and we have not been beyond low Earth orbit, approximately 250 miles up, since that time.

On this day, 50 years ago, the Eagle lander touched down in the Sea of Tranquility and Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped out onto the dust of another planetoid and into the pages of history, while Mike Collins piloted the Columbia orbiter over their heads, and hundreds of NASA engineers and mission specialists held their breaths in Houston and elsewhere.

On this day, I salute all these heroes, but these three especially. May they inspire generations of explorers and scientists to come.

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