The latter half of the sixties saw milestones that continue to haunt our collective unconscious. On March 16, 1966, Gemini 8 made the first docking ever with another space vehicle -- an unmanned Agena rocket stage. On January 27, 1967, a flash fire in the Apollo 1 command module during a test on the launch pad killed the astronauts Virgil Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee. On April 24 that same year, Soyuz 1 crashed on re-entry, killing Vladimir Komarov -- the first astronaut to die during a flight.

On December 21, 1968, Apollo 8 was launched -- the first manned mission to orbit the moon.

And then, 1969 dawned. On July 20 that year, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin walked on the moon. Armstrong uttered the words that continue to induce goose bumps worldwide: 'That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.'

Many years later, Armstrong recalled his initial concerns about the Apollo 11 mission. Apparently, he had believed there was only a 50 per cent chance of landing on the moon.