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Forty years ago today, NASA's Apollo 11 spacecraft landed on the moon, and Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took humanity's first steps on the surface of a foreign world. There are some who are cynical, and insist that the only reason that the spacecraft was sent was to prove America's supposed superiority over the Russians. There are some who maintain that the moon landing never happened at all. And there are some who are unfased by the whole thing, and think that the money and effort could have been better spent elsewhere. But the moon landing was a true display of mankind's thirst for knowledge and scientific achievement. And I think the main reason for ever wanting to go to the moon was simple - because it was there, and we could.

Let us not forget that it was an exceptionally dangerous mission. Nothing on this scale had ever been attempted before, and there were doubts about whether the mission would work at all. Apollo 11 had about 20 seconds of fuel left as it landed on the moon, and had there been any delay, the landing could have been wrought with disaster. And it was so dangerous, in fact, that a speech was prepared for President Nixon to read, in the event of the mission going wrong and the three astronauts being stuck in space. Thankfully made public, this speech is something that everyone should read.

Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace. These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery. But they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice.

These two men are laying down their lives in mankind’s most noble goal: the search for truth and understanding. They will be mourned by their families and friends; they will be mourned by their nation; they will be mourned by the people of the world; they will be mourned by a Mother Earth that dared send two of her sons into the unknown.

In their exploration, they stirred the people of the world to feel as one; in their sacrifice, they bind more tightly the brotherhood of man. In ancient days, men looked at stars and saw their heroes in the constellations. In modern times, we do much the same, but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood.

Others will follow, and surely find their way home. Man’s search will not be denied. But these men were the first, and they will remain the foremost in our hearts.

For every human being who looks up at the moon in the nights to come will know that there is some corner of another world that is forever mankind.