Alex McColgan

So if you've been watching from the sidelines, now's the perfect time to join the community.

57 years ago, in July 1969, the world stood still, staring agog at grainy, flickering televisions as Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong descended from the Eagle Lunar Module towards the moon.

Looking back, it feels almost like a fever dream of ambition.

This was only 66 years after the first airplane took flight, but against all odds, we broke free from Earth's gravity and touched another world.

This frontier-busting feat was presented as absolutely effortless, a triumph of US might.

But was it really all plain sailing?

What the 600 million or so TV viewers had no idea about was that this mission nearly failed.

Behind the scenes, approximately 400,000 engineers, scientists, and experts worked tirelessly around the clock, from incredibly detailed plans years in the making, to keep it all on track.

The slightest deviation could end not just in human tragedy, but also have huge global political consequences.

So how did this scientific army plan for every eventuality and stop disaster in its tracks?

I'm Alex McColgan, and you're watching Astrum Extra.

Join me today as we uncover the incredible science that made the Apollo 11 mission possible.

We'll explore the launch, journey through space and descent onto the moon, digging into the meticulous maths, maneuvers and materials that kept the Apollo 11 team alive, that most people don't even know existed.

The next time you go out at night, look up.

Find the moon.

Hopefully you can't really miss it.

And now imagine going there.

Travelling more than 384,000 kilometres away from everything and anyone any human being has ever known.

and actually landing on the moon.

It blows my mind to think about, but nearly 60 years ago, three humans did just that.