When President John F. Kennedy ordered NASA to play golf on the moon way back in 1961, few people knew that we also were embarking on a computing revolution. In just eight short years, the United States had landed two astronauts on Luna -- and to get there, huge technological innovations such as the Apollo Guidance Computer played a major part. In commemoration of humankind's first jaunt to the moon 40 years ago (Alan Shepard wouldn't hit his famous golf shots for a couple more years after that), here's a look at the most important IT spin-offs from NASA's Apollo missions and subsequent space exploration.
