NASA astronauts first landed on the moon 49 years ago today. Here's what the landing looked like and how the US pulled it off.

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy put a monumental goal before Congress:

"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," Kennedy said. "No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish."

Indeed, it took eight years to reach the moon after that, and NASA burned through $25.4 billion dollars before the Apollo program was finished. But on July 20, 1969, as people throughout the world gathered around fuzzy television sets, astronaut Neil Armstrong announced: "the Eagle has landed."

Here's how the US made it to the moon 49 years ago.

SEE ALSO: Astronauts explain why nobody has visited the moon in more than 45 years — and the reasons are depressing

The first manned Apollo mission, Apollo 1, ended in tragedy in 1967. All three crew members died in a fire inside their capsule during a pre-launch test on the launch pad.

NASA said design changes after the accident made the Apollo spacecraft safer for journeys to the moon.

By July 1969, NASA astronauts had flown to the moon's orbit twice, and the crew of Apollo 11 was ready to land on the lunar surface.

The first two crewed missions to the moon flew astronauts into the moon's orbit (Apollo 8) and 50,000 feet above the lunar surface (Apollo 10.)

The Apollo team practiced their moon-landing plan on Earth first, flying this Lunar Landing Research Vehicle for the first time in 1964.

The flights didn't always go smoothly: Commander Neil Armstrong was at the helm of an LLRV in 1968 when he had to eject himself seconds before it crashed.