Lunar celebrations, a lunar film and even a full moon to mark the 55th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing

Cosmos is offering a full moon for the 55th anniversary of the first moon landing this week, and many other events honor Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s giant leap.

Aldrin, 94, the last surviving member of the Apollo 11 crew, gave a keynote address at the San Diego Air and Space Museum on Saturday night. He will be joined by astronaut Charlie Duke, who was the voice inside Mission Control for the July 20, 1969 moon landing.

The President of the Museum Jim Kidrick could not refuse to throw “55 years to the day of one of the most important moments in American history, but in the history of the world.”

Can’t make it to San Diego, Cape Canaveral or Houston? There are plenty of other ways to celebrate the moon, including the new movie “Fly Me to the Moon,” which stars Scarlett Johansson.

And you can explore all things Apollo 11 on a special website by the Smithsonian Institution’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

If nothing else, get involved full moon Saturday night through Sunday morning.

Here is a list of other Apollo 11 options:

‘The eagle is down’

NASA’s Kennedy Space Center is hosting a moon landing ceremony, just a few miles from where the Saturn V rocket blasted off with Armstrong, Aldrin and Michael Collins on July 16, 1969. Johnson Space Center’s Houston, home of Mission Control, is here. again into action. Four days after they left Earth, Armstrong and Aldrin, in their lunar module, the Eagle, he lived in the Sea of ​​Peace at 4:17 pm Eastern with no fuel left. “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed,” Armstrong radioed from 240,000 miles (386,000 kilometers) away. “There is no moment of national unity as the Eagle sits, as the entire planet Earth looks down,” NASA administrator Bill Nelson said Friday in a commemorative message.

‘One small step’

“Must be one small step for man, one giant for mankind,” Armstrong declared when he became the first man to walk on the moon. Armstrong grew up in Wapakoneta in northwestern Ohio, now home of the Armstrong Air and Space Museum.The museum’s tribute on Saturday begins with a couple of “Run to the Moon” rocket launches and pictures of the wind tunnel for John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth. , from New Concord on the other side of the country, about 240 kilometers. The John and Annie Glenn Museum will open there on Saturday for the astronaut’s recovery.

‘The Great Desolation’

Aldrin followed Armstrong out on the moon, saying “Awesome desolation.” They spent just over two hours tramping the dusty terrain, before returning to their lunar module and blasting off to link up with Collins, the command module pilot in lunar orbit. Armstrong’s spacecraft for the moon landing was rebuilt in time for 50th anniversary in 2019. On display at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, along with their return capsule. Aldrin and Collins’ spacesuits from Apollo 11 are also part of the Smithsonian’s collection and are currently in storage. Collins died in 2021less than one year after the 50th birthday; Armstrong died in 2012.

Splashdown!

The capsule containing Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins – named Columbia – exploded in the Pacific on July 24, 1969. They were recovered by the USS Hornet, a Navy aircraft carrier that repeated the Apollo 12 mission four months later. . The Hornet is now part of a museum in Alameda, California, and a launch party is planned for Saturday. Some of the first recovery workers will be there. The Apollo 11 astronauts were immediately locked inside the Hornet, and, along with 48 pounds (22 kilograms) of lunar rocks and soil, remained inactive for weeks. when they were moved to Houston. Scientists were afraid that the scientists might have brought back the moon’s microbes. Most of the rocks remain locked away in a restricted lab at Houston’s Johnson Space Center. The Apollo program carried 12 astronauts to the moon from 1969 to 1972.

Next up: Apollo’s twin

NASA plans to send four astronauts to orbit the moon next year – part of the new moon program named Artemis after Apollo’s sister in Greek mythology. The SLS rocket for this flight – short for Launch System – should be at the Kennedy Space Center next week. It arrives by ship from NASA’s Michoud Convention Center in New Orleans. This first phase will receive two boosters at Kennedy before blasting off in September 2025 – earlier – with three US and one Canadian astronauts. None of them will live on the moon; it will come on the next mission with another team before 2026.