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Happy Moon Day

By Kim Krawiec

Image source: NASA

Today marks the 40^thAnniversary of the Apollo 11 mission lunar landing on July 20, 1969, when Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong took ?one small step.?  With help from NASA, Wired Science, and The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, I put together some links, photos, and documents for a virtual celebration.

I.               Features of particular note in honor of the anniversary, via Wired Science:

a.     Audio time capsule:

NASA is playing the entire Apollo 11 mission audio in real time + 40 years.

b.   New photos from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera, or LROC, of five of the six Apollo sites, with the remaining Apollo 12 site expected to be photographed in the coming weeks.  Even shows astronaut footprints.

c.  Restored historical video footage of the landing.

NASA has released restored clips of some of the key moments in the mission, including Neil Armstrong?s ?one small step.?

d.  Audio that Earth didn?t hear. The on-board recordings from the mission:

You're in a spacecraft, descending to land on the moon for the first time in history, and the microphone to Earth is off. What do you say?

"I would appreciate if you could ... see if you could ... find the map ..."

"Trade you that for a piece of gum. There it is."

And so it went as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin descended to the surface of the moon aboard the Lunar Module Eagle on July 20, 1969. The world heard communications between the crew and Mission Control live as they happened. But Earth did not hear the conversation between Armstrong and Aldrin, although it was recorded onboard the Eagle.  

e.  The Apollo 11 astronauts will speak at a sold-out event at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. Watch it live on NASA TV at 8 p.m. EDT on July 19.

f.   Apollo 40th Anniversary News Conference at NASA Headquarters, July 20 at 9:30-10:30 EDT from NASA headquarters.  Also live on NASA TV.

II.           Key Apollo Source Documents.  Includes, for example, this memo (first few paragraphs copied below) from President John F. Kennedy that set in motion the Apollo missions.  

III.             From The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum

Special Message to the Congress on Urgent National Needs, President John F. Kennedy, Delivered in person before a joint session of Congress

Details:

The President discusses the nation?s space program and establishes a national goal ?before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.?

Location: U.S. Capitol Building, Washington, D.C.

Date: May 25, 1961

Running time: 7:56 minutes

Audio file and text transcript available here

IV.           Apollo 40^th Anniversary Website, here

Full post as published by The Faculty Lounge on July 20, 2009 (boomark / email).