Neil Armstrong the first manned Moon landing, and spent two and a half hours outside the spacecraft while Michael Collins remained in lunar orbit in the command and service module. When Armstrong stepped onto the lunar surface, he famously said: "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind." Along with Collins and Aldrin, Armstrong was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Richard Nixon. President Jimmy Carter presented Armstrong with the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 1978, and Armstrong and his former crewmates received a Congressional Gold Medal in 2009. After he resigned from NASA in
The Leslie Cantwell Collection image to life thus making it more meaningful to the viewer.” Cantwell made countless trips back and forth across the Atlantic, travelling extensively throughout the United States to meet and converse with the Apollo astronauts, with many of whom he developed a special rapport that would enable him to understand the “men behind the mission”. Amazingly, he was able to persuade all but one of the twelve men who set foot on the moon to inscribe the images, including Buzz Aldrin, Alan Bean, Gene Cernan, Charlie Duke and Harrison Schmitt, amongst others. Only Neil Armstrong refused (for years he has