The moment Apollo 11’s astronauts took their first steps on the moon marked one of humanity’s greatest accomplishments, its one small step for man; one giant leap for how we see our world.

It was a mission not completed alone. Kenneth Trendel worked at Kodak for decades and says, “I was what was called a component test engineer and I tested the command module and the processor dryer that processed the film.”

Kodak’s engineers designed cameras and film for each stage of the space mission.

“I went into some of the other more advanced programs that Kodak has that, at the time, we couldn’t talk about but now you can,” added Trendel.

More than 20 Kodak retirees came together Friday to celebrate their achievements and to view a gallery with exclusive Kodak photos of the Apollo 11 lunar mission.

L3Harris' connection to NASA's Apollo 11 shares just as much significance to the successful moon-landing.

“I worked on space programs for 47 years,” said retired L3Harris employee, Jeff Wynn.

During the Apollo mission and for the past 60 years, L3Harris Technologies (formerly Harris Corporation) in Rochester designed and built imaging and remote sensing systems and services for NASA programs.

“One of the first programs I worked on was ‘Lunar Orbiter.’ I was only 19 and a technician at the time. My job was to put the lunar orbiter together and do thermovacuum testing on it before it would be launched,” said Wynn, who also describes a photo of the lunar orbiter saying, “this picture is of the moon and obviously you don’t want to land there because it’s pretty rocky.”

L3Harris says it's been a part of every U.S. manned space flight. The technologies built by L3Harris have enabled scientists to gain a clearer picture and better understanding of the earth, moon, planets, and larger universe.

“It’s been a remarkable change in technology since the Apollo 11. When I think back of what we were able to do 50 years ago; to put a man on the moon,” says Laura Abplanalp, director of Civil and Commercial Imaging for Intelligence for L3Harris.

“It was a lot of risks and a lot of challenges. Today we have state-of-the-art stable glass, we have stable structures.”

Rochester is the home of L3Harris and Kodak, both employing hundreds of thousands of people around the world.