S1 • E8 25m
'One small step': Spider, the crew-named lunar module of Apollo 9, was the first spacecraft ever to be flown that was unable to return to Earth. Circumstances beyond NASA's control (the astronaut who was supposed to pilot the lunar module died on an earlier mission) meant that back up crews had to be rotated, which put Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldran in the prime position of being the astronauts who would be the first to traverse the moon's surface, in July of 1969.
