CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida — This weekend, the cosmos is offering a full moon in celebration of the 55th anniversary of the first lunar landing, and numerous events are set to honor Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s historic achievement.
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 inside Mission Control during the July 20, 1969 moon landing.
Museum President Jim Kidrick couldn’t resist celebrating “55 years to the day of one of the most historic moments in not only the history of America, but in the history of the world.”
If you can’t make it to San Diego, Cape Canaveral, or Houston, there are other ways to celebrate the moon landing. The new film “Fly Me to the Moon,” starring Scarlett Johansson, offers a light-hearted look back. Additionally, the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum has created a special website dedicated to Apollo 11. At the very least, you can enjoy the full moon from Saturday night into Sunday morning.
Here’s a rundown of some Apollo 11 tributes:
‘The Eagle has landed’ NASA’s Kennedy Space Center is hosting a moon fest at its tourist stop, close to where the Saturn V rocket launched Armstrong, Aldrin, and Michael Collins on July 16, 1969. Houston’s Johnson Space Center, home to Mission Control, is also participating. Four days after their departure, Armstrong and Aldrin, in their lunar module, Eagle, landed on the Sea of Tranquility with minimal fuel remaining. “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed,” Armstrong radioed from 240,000 miles away. “No moment united the country quite like when the Eagle landed, as all of planet Earth watched from below,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in an anniversary message on Friday.
‘One small step’ “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” Armstrong declared as he became the first person to step on the moon. Armstrong’s hometown of Wapakoneta, Ohio, now hosts the Armstrong Air and Space Museum, which will hold events on Saturday, including “Run to the Moon” races, model rocket launches, and wind tunnel demonstrations. The John and Annie Glenn Museum in New Concord, Ohio, will also be open on Saturday.
‘Magnificent desolation’ Aldrin followed Armstrong onto the moon, describing the scene as “Magnificent desolation.” After spending just over two hours on the surface, they returned to their lunar module and launched back to rejoin Collins, who remained in lunar orbit. Armstrong’s spacesuit is 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 collection and are currently in storage. Collins passed away in 2021, while Armstrong died in 2012.
Splashdown! The Apollo 11 capsule, Columbia, carrying Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins, splashed down in the Pacific on July 24, 1969. They were recovered by the USS Hornet, a Navy aircraft carrier that later retrieved the Apollo 12 crew. The Hornet is now a museum in Alameda, California, which will host a splashdown party on Saturday with some of the original recovery crew. After splashdown, the astronauts were quarantined aboard the Hornet and later in Houston, along with 48 pounds of moon rocks and soil. Most of the moon rocks are still stored at Houston’s Johnson Space Center. The Apollo program landed 12 astronauts on the moon from 1969 through 1972.
Next up: Apollo’s twin NASA plans to send four astronauts around the moon next year as part of a new program named Artemis, after Apollo’s twin sister in Greek mythology. The Space Launch System (SLS) rocket for that mission is set to arrive at Kennedy Space Center next week from NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. The core stage will be equipped with strap-on boosters at Kennedy before launching in September 2025, at the earliest, with three U.S.
