The cosmos is offering a full moon for the 55th anniversary of the first lunar landing this weekend, and many other events honor Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s giant leap.
Aldrin, 94, the last surviving member of the Apollo 11 crew, will headline a gala at the San Diego Air and Space Museum on Saturday night. He will be joined by astronaut Charlie Duke, who was the voice in Mission Control during the July 20, 1969, moon landing.
Museum President Jim Kidrick couldn’t resist throwing a party “55 years to the day after one of the most historic moments not only in American history, but in world history.”
Can’t make it to San Diego, Cape Canaveral, or Houston? There are plenty of other ways to celebrate the moon landing, including watching the new movie “Fly Me to the Moon,” a lighthearted throwback starring Scarlett Johansson.
And you can learn all about Apollo 11 on a special website at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum.
If nothing else, soak in full moon From Saturday evening to Sunday morning.
Here’s a look at some of the tributes to Apollo 11:
“The eagle has landed”
NASA’s Kennedy Space Center is hosting a lunar party at its tourist stopover, just miles from where the Saturn V rocket blasted off with Armstrong, Aldrin and Michael Collins on July 16, 1969. Houston’s Johnson Space Center, home to Mission Control, is also getting in on the action. Four days after leaving Earth, Armstrong and Aldrin, aboard their lunar module Eagle, settled on the sea of tranquility “Houston, this is Tranquility Base. The Eagle has landed,” Armstrong radioed from 240,000 miles away. “No moment has united the country as much as the landing of the Eagle, with all of planet Earth watching from below,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in an anniversary message Friday.
“One small step”
“It is a small step “For man, one giant leap for mankind,” Armstrong proclaimed as he became the first man to set foot on the moon. Armstrong grew up in Wapakoneta, in northwest Ohio, where the Armstrong Air and Space Museum is now located. The museum’s tribute Saturday will begin with two “Run to the Moon” races, followed by model rocket launches and wind tunnel demonstrations. John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, was from New Concord, on the other side of the state, about 150 miles away. The John and Annie Glenn Museum there will be open Saturday for your astronaut fix.
“Magnificent desolation”
Aldrin followed Armstrong out onto the moon, saying “Magnificent desolation.” They spent a little over two hours walking the dusty surface before returning to their lunar module and blasting off to join Collins, the pilot of the command module that had remained in lunar orbit. Armstrong’s lunar launch spacesuit was restored in time for the launch. 50th anniversary in 2019. It is on display at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, along with their return capsule. Aldrin and Collins’ Apollo 11 spacesuits are also part of the Smithsonian’s collection and are currently in storage. Collins died in 2021less than a year after the 50th anniversary; Armstrong died in 2012.
Splashdown!
The capsule containing Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins, named Columbia, splashed down in the Pacific on July 24, 1969. They were recovered by the USS Hornet, a Navy aircraft carrier that repeated the operation for Apollo 12 four months later. The Hornet is now part of a museum in Alameda, California, and a splashdown party is planned aboard the ship Saturday. Some members of the original recovery crew will be in attendance. The Apollo 11 astronauts were immediately quarantined aboard the Hornet and, along with 50 pounds of moon rocks and soil, remained out of reach for weeks while they were being transported to Houston. Scientists feared the astronauts had brought back lunar germs. Most of the rocks remained locked away in a restricted lab at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. The Apollo program landed 12 astronauts on the Moon from 1969 to 1972.
Coming soon: Apollo’s twin
NASA aims to send four astronauts to the moon next year, as part of a new lunar program called Artemis, after Apollo’s twin sister in Greek mythology. The SLS rocket for the flyby (short for Space Launch System) is scheduled to land at the Kennedy Space Center next week. It will arrive by barge from NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. The core stage will receive a pair of strap-on boosters at the Kennedy Space Center before blasting off in September 2025 at the earliest, carrying three American astronauts and one Canadian. None of them will land on the moon; that will happen on a follow-up mission with a different crew no earlier than 2026.
