Apollo 11 insignia. At Scheer's suggestion, the CM was named "Columbia" after "Columbiad", the giant cannon that launched a spacecraft (also from Florida) in Jules Verne's 1865 novel "From the Earth to the Moon". It also referenced Columbia, a historical name of the United States. The astronaut had personal preference kits (PPKs), small bags containing personal items of significance that they wanted to take with them on the mission. Five PPKs were carried on Apollo 11: three (one for each astronaut) were stowed on "Columbia" before launch, and two on "Eagle". Neil Armstrong's LM PPK contained a piece of wood from the
Exploration of the Moon that a lunar lander would not sink into a thick layer of dust, as had been feared. The first artificial satellite of the Moon was the Soviet probe Luna 10, launched March 31, 1966. On December 24, 1968, the crew of Apollo 8, Frank Borman, James Lovell and William Anders, became the first human beings to enter lunar orbit and see the far side of the Moon in person. Humans first landed on the Moon on July 20, 1969. The first human to walk on the lunar surface was Neil Armstrong, commander of the U.S. mission Apollo 11. The first