Forty-seven years ago today, two men walked on the Moon for the very first time.
The scientific importance of the Apollo 11 mission’s importance is often over-played – the other 10 astronauts in the Apollo Program that walked on the Moon had much longer missions on the surface than 11’s two and a half hours, and so achieved more scientifically.
But it was Apollo 11 that brought back the first photographs, the first impressions, and the first physical rock samples from another world.
Their lunar samples confirmed that the Moon had a common origin to Earth – cue the ‘giant impact’ theory – while seismometers laid by Armstrong and Aldrin measured Moon-quakes that proved that the Moon had a core, a mantle and a crust, just like Earth.
The historic places and treasured memorabilia from the Apollo 11 mission is mostly preserved and easy to find, but only if you know where to look.
Apollo 11 Saturn V on launch pad 39A: The scene of Apollo 11’s blast-off on 16 July, 1969, Pad 39A at Cape Kennedy at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Florida, is a mecca for all Moon (and space shuttle) aficionados. Now being modified by SpaceX, it will likely be where astronauts are eventually sent to the ISS from US soil again (post-Space Shuttle), probably aboard a Dragon capsule atop a Falcon 9 rocket. The visitor complex at Kennedy Space Center runs tours. © NASA
Columbia on display in the Boeing Milestones of Flight Hall: When it comes to major Apollo 11 hardware, Columbia is all that’s left. It was here that Michael Collins worried about whether Armstrong and Aldrin would return, and the vehicle that the three pioneers splashed-down into the Pacific Ocean on 24 July, 1969. Columbia is now on display in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC. © Eric Long/National Air and Space Museum/Smithsonian Institution
Charles Duke as CAPCOM for Apollo 11 at NASA’s Mission Control: CAPCOM Charles Duke’s conversations with Apollo 11 will go down in history, and so will Mission Control in Houston, Texas. Mission Operations Control Room 2, where the immortal words “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed”, were heard is in Building 30 at the Johnson Space Center. However, it’s worth booking in advance for the Level 9 Tour, which brings you up close to current NASA operations. © NASA
President Nixon greets the quarantined astronauts aboard the USS Hornet: Just off Oakland in San Francisco Bay is the ship that retrieved Columbia from the Pacific Ocean. Now containing a Mobile Quarantine Facility exactly like the one used to house the three astronauts while they were returned to NASA. The excellent USS Hornet Sea, Air & Space Museum has stacks of photos and memorabilia from Apollo 11 as well as an actual Apollo Command Module used in testing. © NASA
The Lunar Excursion Module Simulator (LEMS) at Langley: The US space programme arguably started in Hampton, Virginia at the NASA Langley Research Centre. Home to the Virginia Air and Space Center, this is where you’ll find a Project Gemini test capsule, the actual Mercury 14 and a wealth of Apollo training gear including the Apollo Lunar Excursion Module Simulator, which all the moon-walkers trained in to familiarise themselves with how to fly the lunar-landing vehicles. © NASA
Buzz Aldrin’s EVA (extra-vehicular activity) spacesuit: The suit is part of the National Air and Space Museum’s awesome Apollo To The Moon exhibition, though Neil Armstrong’s needs conservation work before it can be displayed again. In the Armstrong Air & Space Museum in Wapakoneta, Ohio, and you can see the spacesuit that Armstrong wore inside Columbia and Eagle, as well as Gemini 8. © National Air and Space Museum/Smithsonian Institution
Apollo 11 Moon rock: NASA’s six Apollo missions fetched a total of 382kg of Moon-rock, but only 22 kg came back on Apollo 11. The Armstrong Air & Space Museum has a sample, as does the Kansas Cosmosphere & Space Center and the Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex in Australia. The UK’s Natural History Museum and National Museum Cardiff have other Moon rock, but only 10 Downing Street has actual Apollo 11 matter. © NASA
The Lunar Landing Research Vehicle: Learning how to fly and precision-land the Apollo Lunar Module while in the Moon’s airless environment was crucial to Apollo 11’s success. Cue complex simulation training in a Lunar Landing Research Vehicle (LLRV), nicknamed the ‘flying bedsteads’. Most were destroyed in accidents but an LLRV No. 2 is on display at the Armstrong Flight Research Center on Edwards Air Force Base, Mojave California. © NASA
Apollo 11 blasts-off atop a Saturn V rocket: Perhaps the most awe-inspiring scientific achievement of the entire mission to reach the Moon were the incredible Saturn V rockets, one of which can be seen at the Apollo/Saturn V Center of the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. While you’re here you can also see the podium used by President John F Kennedy to deliver his famous “We choose the Moon” speech in 1962, which set in motion the space race that culminated in Apollo 11. © NASA
Two film magazines used on the Lunar surface: They’re perhaps the most famous photos ever taken, but little remains of the camera equipment used by Apollo 11. Most of it was left on the Moon, though in the National Air and Space Museum you can see Columbia’s adapted Hasselblad 500 EL Data Camera as well as the actual film magazines used by Neil Armstrong on the lunar surface. © Eric Long/ National Air and Space Museum/Smithsonian Institution
