Apollo 11 was the spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin formed the American crew that landed the Apollo Lunar Module Eagle on July 20, 1969, at 20:17 UTC. Armstrong became the first person to step onto the lunar surface six hours and 39 minutes on July 21 at 02:56 UTC, they spent about two and a quarter hours together outside the spacecraft, they collected 47.5 pounds of lunar material to bring back to Earth. Command module pilot Michael Collins flew the Command Module Columbia alone in lunar orbit while they were on the Moon's surface. Armstrong and Aldrin spent 21 hours, 36 minutes on the lunar surface at a site they named Tranquility Base before lifting off to rejoin Columbia in lunar orbit. Apollo 11 was launched by a Saturn V rocket from Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, Florida, on July 16 at 13:32 UTC, it was the fifth crewed mission of NASA's Apollo program; the Apollo spacecraft had three parts: a command module with a cabin for the three astronauts, the only part that returned to Earth.

After being sent to the Moon by the Saturn V's third stage, the astronauts separated the spacecraft from it and traveled for three days until they entered lunar orbit. Armstrong and Aldrin moved into Eagle and landed in the Sea of Tranquility on July 20; the astronauts used Eagle's ascent stage to lift off from the lunar surface and rejoin Collins in the command module. They jettisoned Eagle before they performed the maneuvers that propelled Columbia out of the last of its 30 lunar orbits onto a trajectory back to Earth, they returned to Earth and splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on July 24 after more than eight days in space. Armstrong's first step onto the lunar surface was broadcast on live TV to a worldwide audience, he described the event as "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." Apollo 11 ended the Space Race and fulfilled a national goal proposed in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy: "before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth."

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the United States was engaged in the Cold War, a geopolitical rivalry with the Soviet Union. On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched the first artificial satellite; this surprise success fired imaginations around the world. It demonstrated that the Soviet Union had the capability to deliver nuclear weapons over intercontinental distances, challenged American claims of military and technological superiority; this precipitated the Sputnik crisis, triggered the Space Race. President Dwight D. Eisenhower responded to the Sputnik challenge by creating the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, initiating Project Mercury, which aimed to launch a man into Earth orbit, but on April 12, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person in space, the first to orbit the Earth. Nearly a month on May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard became the first American in space, completing a 15-minute suborbital journey. After being recovered from the Atlantic Ocean, he received a congratulatory telephone call from Eisenhower's successor, John F. Kennedy.

Since the Soviet Union had higher lift capacity launch vehicles, Kennedy chose, from among options presented by NASA, a challenge beyond the capacity of the existing generation of rocketry, so that the US and Soviet Union would be starting from a position of equality. A crewed mission to the Moon would serve this purpose. On May 25, 1961, Kennedy addressed the United States Congress on "Urgent National Needs" and declared:I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space. We propose to accelerate the development of the appropriate lunar space craft. We propose to develop alternate liquid and solid fuel boosters, much larger than any now being developed, until certain, superior. We propose additional funds for other engine development and for unmanned explorations—explorations which are important for one purpose which this nation will never overlook: the survival of the man who first makes this daring flight.

But in a real sense, it will not be one man going to the Moon—if we make this judgment affirmatively, it will be an entire nation. For all of us must work to put him there. On September 12, 1962, Kennedy delivered another speech before a crowd of about 40,000 people in the Rice University football stadium in Houston, Texas. A quoted refrain from the middle portion of the speech reads as follows: There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet, its hazards are hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, its opportunity for peaceful cooperation may never come again, but why, some say, the Moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask, why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas? We choose to go to the Moon! We choose to go to the Moon... We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.

A spline, or the more modern term flexible curve, consists of a long strip fixed in position at a number of points that relaxes to form and hold a smooth curve passing through those points for the purpose of transferring that curve to another material. Before computers were used for creating engineering designs, drafting tools were employed by designers drawing by hand. To draw curves for shipbuilding, draftsmen used long, flexible strips of wood, plastic, or metal called splines; the splines were held in place with lead weights. The elasticity of the spline material combined with the constraint of the control points, or knots, would cause the strip to take the shape that minimized the energy required for bending it between the fixed points, this being the smoothest possible shape. Splines are more referred to as flexible curves and perform much of the original function; the main difference between splines and flexible curves is that the control points of flexible curves are internal in their housing.

This has one advantage over splines: whereas the draftsman had to first set up the spline and control points before moving the object to be marked to the spline in that order only, with flexible curves the draftsman can set up the flexible curve before moving the flexible curve to the object to be marked. One can recreate an original draftsman's spline device with weights and a length of thin stiff plastic or rubber tubing; the weights are attached to the tube. The tubing is placed over drawing paper. Crosses are marked on the paper to designate the knots or control points; the tube is adjusted so that it passes over the control points. In 1946, mathematicians started studying the spline shape and derived the piecewise polynomial formula known as the spline curve, or spline function; this has led to the widespread use of such functions in computer-aided design in the surface designs of vehicles. I. J. Schoenberg gave the spline function its name after its resemblance to the mechanical spline used by draftsmen.

The origins of the spline in wood-working may show in the conjectured etymology, which connects the word spline to the word splinter. Craftsmen have made splines out of rubber and other elastomeric materials. Spline devices help bend the wood for pianos, violas, etc; the Wright brothers used one to shape the wings of their aircraft. French curve – Template made from metal, wood or plastic composed of segments of smooth curves Lesbian rule – A flexible strip of lead that could be bent to the curves of a molding, used to measure or reproduce irregular curves Technical drawing tool – Tools and instruments used for accurate and precise manual draughting

Gontiti is a Japanese acoustic guitar duo formed in 1978 by Masahiko "Gonzalez" Mikami and Masahide "Titi" Matsumura. Gontiti's music incorporates a number of styles, including bossa nova and classical music; as of 2007 Gontiti have recorded compilations. Most of their recordings have been for Epic/Sony Records; the duo have provided music for a number of Japanese films, most notably the 2004 Hirokazu Kore-eda film Dare mo shiranai, released in English-speaking countries as Nobody Knows. Official website ディスコグラフィ | Sony Music - Discography in Epic/Sony Records website Album01 of GONTITI - Discography in official website Gontiti Fan's Web Site Gontiti at Allmusic. Titi Matsumura and Gonzalez Mikami at Internet Movie Database