Today marks the 50th anniversary of the moon-landing and although it was a NASA mission, Canada played a big role.

It was July 20th, 1969, when astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made history as they became the first humans ever to stand and walk on the moon as part of NASA’s Apollo 11 mission.

Supervisor of Interpretation at the Johnson Geo Centre, Stefan Jones, says there were some 13 Canadians involved in getting the first astronauts to the moon and bringing them back.

He says many were engineers as part of the Avro Arrow program.

However, Sudbury, Ontario also played a key role. He says Sudbury was used as a testing ground to make sure things worked properly, a common practice for space agencies as they do not want to be in space trying something for the first time.

Jones says the moon landing is a testament to what humans are capable of.

He says the moon is the farthest we’ve gone, yet it is so relatively close to us. It’s an inspirational idea and proves just what humans can do.