The secret feuds and disgusting truths at the center of historic Apollo 11 landing revealed – as mission hits major milestone

One small step for man and one giant leap for mankind on the Moon have reached a major milestone.

Today marks 55 years since the Apollo 11 moon landing, with Neil Armstrong becoming the first person to set foot on the moon.

While the mission was a historic milestone for the US, the celebrated moment was fraught with secret disagreements and the horrific truth that the moon was contaminated with human feces.

The Apollo missions left 96 bags of feces on the moon. They are still there to this day. But that was not the only baggage the astronauts brought back.

The Saturn V rocket lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 9:32 a.m. (Eastern Time), about five years after former President John F. Kennedy delivered a 46-minute speech sending America into space.

“Space is now open to us; and our willingness to share its meaning is not conditioned by the efforts of others,” the late president said as he stood behind the podium during a joint session of Congress on May 25, 1961.

“We go into space because whatever mankind must undertake, free men must share it with all…,” the late president said as he stood behind the podium during a joint session of Congress.

“First, I believe that this country must commit itself to achieving the goal of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth before the end of this decade.”

The Apollo 11 crew consisted of 38-year-old Commander Armstrong, 39-year-old Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, the pilot of the Eagle, and 38-year-old former test pilot Michael Collins, who was responsible for navigation and living aboard the command module.

The men boarded the Columbia service module, which also carried the Eagle lunar module. This lunar module would take Armstrong and Aldrin to the lunar surface on July 20, 1969.

Armstrong was the first to step out of Eagle, followed by Aldrin. But what many people may not know is that that mission drove a wedge between the men.

NASA chose Armstrong to perform this famous step, but months before the launch, Aldrin was convinced that the honor would go to him.

George E. Mueller, then NASA’s deputy director for human spaceflight, told several people and some members of the press that Aldrin would be the one to make the first footprint.

The crew of Apollo 11 consisted of (left to right) 38-year-old commander Neil Armstrong, 39-year-old Eagle pilot Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, and 38-year-old former test pilot Michael Collins, whose job was to navigate and remain aboard the command module.

Today marks the 55th anniversary of the epic Apollo 11 moon landing, where Neil Armstrong became the first human to walk on the lunar surface. The image is believed to show Armstrong’s first boot print on the moon

But as the launch drew nearer, the story changed. Rumors began to spread that Armstrong, not Aldrin, would be the first man on the moon.

NASA knew that whoever they chose to be the first to climb the ladder on Apollo 11 would become an instant celebrity.

The decision was ultimately made because of personality differences between Armstrong and Aldrin.

They needed someone confident and self-possessed, without an ego, like Armstrong. Aldrin seemed a little too desperate for fame by comparison.

But Aldrin was convinced he was the right choice.

Not only was he an astronaut, he was also a member of the United States Air Force.

Armstrong, on the other hand, was a civilian and Aldrin felt it would be an insult to the service to put his fellow astronaut in the spotlight.

Aldrin claimed he had expressed his frustrations with Armstrong, but Armstrong later said he could not remember the conversation.

Regardless of whether the conversation happened or not, the Ohio native didn’t turn down the opportunity.

The Saturn V rocket lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 9:32 a.m. ET

NASA chose Armstrong to make the famous move, but months before launch, Aldrin (pictured) was convinced the honor belonged to him

Aldrin’s next plan of action was to convince his colleagues, especially Eugene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon.

The men met when they were selected for the third group of astronauts in November 1963 and trained together for the following year.

Cernan said that Aldrin “came into my office at the Manned Spaceflight Center one day like an angry stork, laden with charts and graphs and statistics, and argued what he took for granted: that he, the lunar module pilot, and not Neil Armstrong, should be first on the ladder of Apollo 11.”

He also described the meeting as “offensive and ridiculous.”

However, Aldrin later wrote a book in which he noted that the encounter was much less dramatic than Cernan had claimed.

Aldrin wrote that during training he realized he did not want the fame and responsibility that would come with being the first man on the moon.

On April 14, 1969, NASA made the decision official: Armstrong would be the first man on the moon.

Whether this led to further conflict between Aldrin and his colleagues is unknown.

The men buckled into the service module Columbia, which also carried the lunar module Eagle (pictured) that would take Armstrong and Aldrin to the lunar surface

The report of the conversations during the Apollo 10 mission revealed that the astronauts had to deal with a number of difficult toilet-related problems

The journey to the moon took three days, three hours and 49 minutes and just like every other human being, the crew had to use the toilet.

But going to the toilet in a spaceship looks very different than it does here on Earth.

Even with the technology we have today, pooping in space is a cumbersome affair.

Astronauts are trained to strap themselves into special toilets that suck solid waste into garbage bags, which are then placed in airtight containers.

But there was no toilet on Apollo 11, or on any other Apollo spacecraft for that matter.

The first toilet was not installed on an American spacecraft until the 1980s.

So Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins had to ‘do it in the suit’.

They all wore a “urine collection device” under their spacesuits, which was essentially a diaper with a roll-up edge to keep them hygienically protected.

The collected urine would then be transferred through a rubber hose to a liquid waste tank – bBut pooping on the Apollo 11 spacecraft was a lot more difficult.

The astronauts used “fecal bags,” which were essentially plastic bags taped to the buttocks to collect feces.

It was also quite a challenge to align the opening of the bag with the flap at the back of the astronauts’ spacesuits.

According to an Apollo astronaut’s estimate, the whole process would take about 45 minutes and would be a mess.

During the Apollo 10 mission, which flew only around the moon, astronaut Tom Strafford said, “Quick, get me a napkin.

“There’s a turd floating in the air,” according to a NASA transcript.

After relieving themselves, the Apollo 11 astronauts sealed the bag, added some germicidal agent, and “kneaded” it until well mixed.

Most of the bags were placed inside larger human waste bags, except for a few that the astronauts took back to Earth for testing.

After Apollo 11 finally landed on the lunar surface on July 20, 1969, the astronauts had to unload some weight or they would not have been able to make the nearly 500,000-mile journey home.

As they prepared for the flight back to Earth, Armstrong and Aldrin spent about eight minutes dumping everything they didn’t need from the spacecraft, including bags of human feces.

Between 1961 and 1975, the Apollo missions left nearly 100 bags of urine, feces, and vomit on the Moon.

Some scientists think we should retrieve the bags in case some bacteria inside them survived. If so, it would tell us a lot about how life can survive in extremely harsh environments.

However, other experts are convinced that bacteria could not possibly have survived the moon’s extreme cold and intense solar radiation.