'One giant leap for mankind': Rocket club celebrates 50th anniversary of Apollo 11

Apollo 11 tributes reach Edmonton Some people are celebrating the first time humans walked on the moon. CTV News Edmonton's Graham Neil reports.

Three, two, one, we have liftoff! Over a dozen model rockets blasted into the clear blue prairie sky in St. Albert Tuesday morning to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Saturn V moon rocket launch.

The Edmonton Rocketry Club partnered with the U.S Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama on this global rocket launch.

About 20 local rocket enthusiasts blasted their models at 7:32 a.m. local time, the exact time Saturn V launched 50 years ago.

On July 16th 1969, the Apollo 11 mission to the moon successfully launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The world celebrated four days later when astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first man to step foot on the moon and famously exclaim, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

And while most of the homemade rockets flew, some fizzled. Matthew Ornawka says today wasn’t a competition amongst club members to see who could reach new heights.

“This was more than just a spectacle, being surrounded in a cloud of smoke was cathartic. It was a celebration about finally putting boots on a celestial body other than earth.”

On July 24, 1969, the three astronauts of the Apollo Mission, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, returned safely to earth.

Their legacy continues to inspire mankind and in particular the members of the Edmonton Rocketry Club whose goal is promoting rocketry as a hobby.