Apollo at 50: A Celebration Guide

Destination Moon, a touring exhibit of 20 Smithsonian artifacts related to the first lunar landing, includes the command module Columbia, the spacecraft that returned the Apollo 11 astronauts to Earth. Visit the Museum of Flight in Seattle between April 13 and September 2 to see Columbia as it concludes its only tour in almost 50 years. The Museum of Flight also has a child-friendly version for hands-on play. Admission is $10 plus the general admission of $25, though several free community days are planned. Details at museumofflight.org.

At the NASA Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida, visitors can touch a moon rock, walk beneath the giant Saturn V rocket, and see the Apollo astronaut transfer van that ferried Apollo astronauts to Launch Pad 39A as part of the Race to the Moon exhibit. Regular adult admission to KSC and its rocket garden is $57. Download the free smartphone app before you go via Google Play or the App Store.

The mobile quarantine facility (MQF) was a converted Airstream trailer where crews just back from the moon remained in isolation until it was determined they hadn’t carried any harmful bugs back to Earth. It contained living and sleeping quarters, a kitchen, and a bathroom. Astronauts donned protective suits on splashdown, and as soon as the Navy SH-3D Sea King helicopter carried them to the aircraft carrier USS Hornet, they were confined to the MQF. After cruising to Hawaii, the Airstream, with crew inside, was loaded onto a Lockheed C-141 Starlifter and flown to Houston. Peek in the MQF windows at the USS Hornet Museum in Alameda, California. Adult admission to the carrier is $20. See USS-Hornet.org.

The Saturn V rocket carrying the crew of Apollo 11 lifted off at 09:32 Eastern Daylight Time (Florida) on July 16, 1969. Join model rocketeers this July 16 at 08:32 a.m. Alabama time at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, as they attempt a Guinness World Record with a simultaneous launch of 5,000 rockets. General admission is $25. Huntsville is nicknamed “the Rocket City” for its sprawling facilities and hiring surge during the Apollo program.

Commemorate the Apollo era by selecting for your documents the font Futura, which was adopted as the official Apollo style for everything from press kits to mission checklists. A sans serif typeface, Futura was created by a graphic designer influenced by the Bauhaus movement and used largely for political artwork until NASA chose it as the iconic typeface of the Space Age. The agency later codified Futura in its first graphic standards manual (free online; search for NASA publication NHB 1430.2).

You cannot yet walk in the footprints left by Apollo astronauts on the moon, but you can follow in their footsteps on Earth. At many sites around the world, the astronauts trained to become lunar geologists. Most of those sites are accessible today. Begin with a free download of the PDF guide, Science Training History of the Apollo Astronauts by William Phinney, which describes dozens of Apollo training sites used from 1962 to 1972, including one in Husavik, Iceland, which now has a museum nearby (explorationmuseum.com).

For those of us who can’t afford John Russell’s lovely globes (see number 10), French designer Oscar Lhermitte has created a lower-cost likeness. From 15,000 high-resolution images returned by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, the Lhermitte globes come in scales of one-to-20 million or one-to-11.5 million. A circle of LED lights revolves to imitate the moon’s phases. An illuminated 6.8-inch moon is $835 (without LEDs $450); an 11.8-inch moon is $644 (moonproject.space/lunar-globe/).

As many as three dozen models of the Apollo command module were built by North American Rockwell, some as near-perfect “boilerplates” for crew training while others served as rough mockups suited to specific engineering tests. Seek out the surviving Apollo models beginning with a boilerplate at the National Air and Space museum, which served in water egress training for all Apollo crews, then surf the Field Guide to American Spacecraft to find the rest, including the front yard of a Dairy Queen in Franklin, Pennsylvania.

The National Air and Space Museum has created detailed, high-resolution scans of the Apollo 11 Command Module Columbia, that you can download for free for 3D printing or viewing in virtual-reality goggles. Or you can view Columbia’s interior and exterior on the web without needing special equipment.

While gazing at the moon this July 20 sip a Budweiser Discovery Reserve, inspired by an archival brewing recipe from the Apollo 11 era. Budweiser describes it as an American red lager with light hoppy aroma, a hint of toffee, and a sharp finish, and looking to our next challenge, adds toasted malt dubbed “Voyager barley” to suggest the reddish tone of Mars.

The 1969 Corvettes owned by Apollo 12 astronaut Alan Bean and Apollo 15 astronaut Al Worden form the heart of the temporary exhibit From Gas Station to Space Station, at the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Bean was part of an elite club of Apollo-era astronauts driving a Corvette leased at a bargain rate from General Motors.

Celebrate our nearest neighbor in the solar system by joining the annual public viewing of the moon on October 5. Local listings and hosting information will be posted on the Web at Observe the Moon Night, or on Twitter using the hashtag #ObserveTheMoon. Before packing the hot chocolate, download a free PDF version of Moon Viewing Ideas For the Whole Family.

Stream an ultra-high resolution, five-minute video tour of the moon via NASA Goddard Flight Center’s Tour of the Moon in 4K, featuring its main geologic features, Apollo landing sites, its near and far sides, and flyovers of its poles all set to soaring music. Most of the stunning graphics used in the video can also be downloaded individually from the NASA Scientific Visualization Studio.

The European Space Agency (ESA) presents The Moon: ESA’s Interactive Guide, with 40 videos or interactive features narrated by experts on mission hardware, instrumentation, flight dynamics, life support, and the coming era of robotic landers and rovers. Viewers navigate to each topic by clicking on a panel of interest as it revolves around the lunar surface.

Grab your eclipse sunglasses and head to South America or Africa to view the partial lunar eclipse on July 16, 2019. But first print an eclipse guide from NASA and read the advice on NASA’s Eclipse Web Site, ranging from how to keep your eyes safe to photography tips and where eclipses have been visible worldwide since 1801.

The latest version of Google Earth, released in time for the Apollo 11 anniversary, includes an option to See the Moon in 3D, with an astronaut-narrated tour of lunar landing sites, 3D models of rovers and landers, 360-degree panoramas, and rare television footage.

NASA posts a pair of videos capturing Apollo astronauts in their most playful and exhilarated moments, from singing a tune while strolling its surface to joyriding the lunar landscape.

This November, and two more times in 2020, Smithsonian Journeys offers five days of VIP access to the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, featuring private talks with astronauts Hoot Gibson and Michael Forman, along with NASA engineer and author Homer Hickam. Also included are Space Academy activities such as simulated group missions and the chance to try the multi-axis simulator and underwater astronaut trainer. Participants in the $3,995 adventure also visit the nearby NASA Marshall Space Flight Center to learn about rocketry and propulsion research.

The Cincinnati Museum Center has opened the Neil Armstrong Space Exploration Gallery centered on its 360-degree immersive theater, along with a display of Armstrong’s “Snoopy” communications cap, formally known as the Comm Carrier, which was worn under his helmet. Adult admission is $14.50.

The New York Hall of Science in Corona, New York, invites families for the evening of July 20 to Apollo, A Party! The event is free with museum admission and features a screening of Apollo 11: First Steps Edition, along with space-theme music and refreshments, and stargazing with the Amateur Astronomers Association of New York. Attendees can also enjoy a private viewing of its summertime exhibit Above and Beyond—The UItimate Flight Exhibition. Admission is $16 for adults, $13 for ages 2-17, with family and student discounts available.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York city presents an exhibit called Apollo’s Muse, with 255 moon-related objects, from 17th-century illustrations to maps to the first photographs of a lunar eclipse in North America, shot in 1854 by the Langenheim brothers. The exhibit is free with adult general admission of $25.

On July 12 from 6:00 to 10:30 pm, dress for moonwalking and join astronauts in a pub crawl in Cocoa Beach, Florida. In addition to a drink at each landing participants in the Astronaut Walking Pub Crawl get a commemorative t-shirt. A prize will be awarded to the best-dressed crawler. Participants must be age 21 or older, and the charge is $75. The pub crawl is just one of several Astronaut Scholarship Foundation events scheduled from July 12 to 14, including a golf tournament, an astronaut parade in classic Corvettes, and panel discussions on women in space and the future of space exploration.

On July 20 the Cradle of Aviation museum in Garden City, New York, offers a day-long Moon Fest with a free screening of Apollo 11: First Steps, a model rocket launch, views through a solar telescope, and the chance to snap a selfie in a 1969-era living room while watching a countdown clock marking the Apollo 11 milestone to the minute. Admission is $20 for adults or $15 for children ages 2-12.

Gawk at Apollo 11: The Immersive Live Show, a 90-minute extravaganza featuring a live cast against the backdrop of a 360-degree video projection and music in a 40,000 square-foot lunar dome seating 1,600 guests.  The event begins July 5 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, followed by performances beginning October 10 in Costa Mesa, California, and on dates to be announced in Houston, Texas. The experience captures the roar of the Saturn V rocket and key visuals from the journey to the moon, with engaging live narration.

From July 14, 2019, through January 5, 2020, visit By the Light of the Silvery Moon: A Century of Lunar Photographs, at the National Gallery of Art on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The exhibit of more than 50 works features Warren de la Rue's late 1850s glass stereograph of the full moon, through stereographs of the lunar surface three inches square taken by Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong.

On July 20 be among the first 15,000 attendees of Apollo 50^th Live and receive an LED wristband synchronized to the mass countdown to the anniversary at 09:56 pm Central Time. The full-day event includes panel presentations by experts from the Apollo era, family science and robotic challenges, and late-night NASA tram tours, and is capped with a live concert by Walk the Moon. General admission tickets are $49.95 or VIP packages are up to $250.

Fisher pens have been issued to NASA astronauts for space missions since 1968. Ink an order for one of 500 individually-numbered, 50^th anniversary edition Fisher Space Pens made of black titanium nitride-plated brass, its cap fused with an authentic artifact of Kapton thermal foil flown on the Apollo 11 Columbia module. The body features diamond-cut engravings of the Eagle’s landing. Priced at $700, including a certificate of authenticity for the foil cap.