For the Mars 1 Crew

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On this day in 1969, Apollo 11 Astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins completed the first-ever landing on the Moon. While Collins circled the Moon on the Command Module (aka “Columbia”), Armstrong & Aldrin spent over 21 hours on the lunar surface’s Tranquility Base alongside the Module (aka “Eagle”). Though most Apollo mission patches featured the Astronauts’ names, the A11 crew decided not to include their names so the patch would represent “everyone who had worked toward a lunar landing.” As Neil Armstrong later said: “We had hundreds of thousands of people dedicated to doing the perfect job.” This particular Apollo 11 patch, pictured above, was flown on the mission, signed by the crew, and later given to NASA in 2014 for safekeeping until it can be presented to the first crew to land on Mars. (Photo: NASA)