Google Doodle marking moon landing 50th anniversary narrated by Apollo 11's Mike Collins

This photo taken by Neil Armstrong, shows astronaut Buzz Aldrin on the Moon's sufrace. AFP PHOTO / NASA / Neil Armstrong

Google is marking 50 years since the first moon landing with a specially created Google Doodle.

Anyone using the search engine on Friday will see a video narrated by Mike Collins, astronaut and command module pilot on NASA's Apollo 11, explaining the incredible feat he achieved alongside Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.

"50 years ago, I went on an adventure," he says, as the animated Google Doodle recreates the groundbreaking mission to the moon.

A team of around 400,000 people from all over the world worked on Project Apollo—mostly factory workers, scientists, and engineers who never left the ground. Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, and Michael Collins were the men chosen to carry out the mission on behalf of mankind.

The Saturn V rocket blasted off on July 16, 1969 from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. Once it had achieved orbit around the moon, the lunar module, dubbed “the Eagle”, separated from the command module Collins was piloting for its 13-minute journey to the Moon’s surface. There, Armstrong took the first steps on the Moon, uttering the famous words: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

“The first time we saw the moon up close it was a magnificent spectacle. It was huge. The sun was coming around it, cascading and making a golden halo, and filled our entire window,” Collins explains in the Doodle. “As impressive as the view was of this alien Moon seen up close, it was nothing compared to the sight of the tiny Earth. The Earth was the main show, the Earth was it.”

All three men returned safely to Earth on July 25, 1969, returning to a hero’s welcome. As well as putting the first men on the moon, the mission was responsible for many other scientific breakthroughs including freeze-dried food and CAT scans.