Welcome to Bedtime History. Hello, this is Breck.

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Neil Armstrong stepped carefully down the ladder of the lunar lander. His boots pressed into the

soft gray dust of the moon. Above him the sky was black. There was no air, so there were no clouds or

blue sky, just stars shining like tiny pinholes of light. Armstrong paused for a moment, then placed one foot on the surface.

His voice crackled through the radio.

That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.

The moon was silent and still.

The dust beneath his feet was fine like powder and clung to everything. Armstrong looked around. The land was covered in hills and craters, untouched for millions of years. Soon Buzz Aldrin joined him. Together they walked slowly like they were bouncing. Every move they made was watched by millions of people on

Earth holding their breath. For the first time in history, humans were walking on another

world. The Apollo 11 moon landing was the most exciting moment of what became known as the

space race. The space race began after World War II. The world had changed. The United States and the

Soviet Union, now called Russia, became the two most powerful countries. But they didn't trust

each other. They were in a Cold War, which means they were not fighting each other with actual

weapons, but with ideas, spying, technology, and power. One way they tried to show

who was stronger was through space exploration. The Soviet Union made the first big move.

On October 4, 1957, they shocked the world by launching the first satellite into space. It was called

Sputnik, which means companion in Russian.

Sputnik was small, only about the size of a beach ball, but it made history. It weighed 184 pounds

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