Launch Control Center in the John F Kennedy Space Center, Merritt Island, Florida, USA, July 1969. Apollo 11 was launched by a Saturn V rocket from Kennedy Space Center on 16 July 1969. It was the fifth manned Apollo mission, and was the first to land on the Moon. The Apollo 11 Lunar Module, code named Eagle, with US astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on board, landed in the Sea of Tranquillity on 20 July 1969.