As US President John F. Kennedy stated in the early 1960s, "No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind".

Even today, despite our achievements since, I think those words still hold true.

Plenty of great scientific advancements have taken place, but to me, nothing has equalled the Apollo landings on the moon.

About 600 million people watched Armstrong's first steps. I was one of them, gazing at a little television screen in a crowded classroom at school.

We all cheered and smiled at each other. Friends and rivals were one, all with big smiles, at that moment.

What we didn't know at the time was that Australia was seeing the event 6.3 seconds earlier than the rest of the world, as our TV coverage was not relayed via the USA.

Dedicated teams at Honeysuckle Creek in the ACT, the Parkes "Dish" and other Australian locations were ensuring that audiences here saw a direct feed.

Later we saw Buzz Aldrin come down the ladder to join Armstrong, and that fuzzy monochrome picture of two men on the moon was a sight never to be forgotten.

Even though only a teenager, I frequently spared a thought for Michael Collins, the Command Module Pilot, who waited for his companions to join him again for the return to Earth as he circled the moon alone.

Indeed, he was very alone: completely out of contact with all of humanity for nearly an hour during each lunar orbit in the cone-shaped spacecraft.

In addition to that, many things could have gone wrong with the landing attempt that could have resulted in Collins coming home alone.

Apollo 11 was the culmination of many years of effort, which included single-astronaut Mercury missions, two-man Gemini missions and then the Apollos, carrying three.

Sometimes forgotten is that there were five more successful crewed lunar landings, ending with Apollo 17 in 1972. I was glued to the TV and radio for the transmissions from every one of them.

Even though we learned a lot about the moon, only one scientist ever went there: geologist Harrison Schmitt on Apollo 17. However, I'm sure that much more science will be done when when we go back.

Indeed, a return to the moon is very much on NASA's agenda, the current aim being to land people there again by 2024. This time, the plan is to include a female astronaut. The project is called Artemis, who in mythology was the twin sister of Apollo. I'm looking forward to that, very much.