The first human to set foot on the Moon was American astronaut Neil Armstrong. On July 20, 1969, during the Apollo 11 mission, Neil Armstrong became the first person to step onto the lunar surface. He famously said, "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind." Armstrong was accompanied by fellow astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, who remained in lunar orbit aboard the command module. Together, they made history and fulfilled President John F. Kennedy's goal of landing a human on the Moon before the end of the 1960s.