Neil Armstrong stepping onto the Moon. Footage of US astronaut and Apollo 11 mission commander Neil Armstrong as he became the first person to step onto the surface of the Moon, taking his historic steps in the early hours (UTC) of 21 July 1969. He first jumped down to the lander footpad, and then tested the surface, and then stepped onto the Moon (shown at the end of the clip). At the point he first stepped on the Moon's surface, Armstrong declared his famous line: 'That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.' This footage was obtained with a slowscan TV camera mounted on the outside of the lander, and activated by Armstrong during his descent of the ladder. The original slow-scan television (SSTV) footage was lost by NASA, with only poorer quality scan conversion footage preserved in NTSC broadcast format.