As we get closer and closer to July 20, the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11 and celebrating man’s first steps on the Moon, more cool ways to commemorate the Apollo program are popping up. NASA has a bunch of events planned already, and I’m sure they’ll announce more in the weeks ahead. Here are a few highlights:
July 2: Take a virtual tour of the Apollo Lunar Sample Processing Lab and Storage Vaults at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. You can also ask lunar sample scientists Gary Lofgren and Andrea Mosie questions via Ustream and Twitter between 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. EDT. Submit questions to the Johnson Space Center’s Twitter account, @NASA_Johnson, ahead of time or via Ustream live during the event. The tour and the question-and-answer session will be broadcast live on NASA TV in addition to Ustream.
July 16: Celebrate the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11’s launch at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex with astronauts Buzz Aldrin (Apollo 11, pictured at right), Charlie Duke (Apollo 16), Al Worden (Apollo 15), Edgar Mitchell (Apollo 14), and Walt Cunningham (Apollo 7). You can also be the first to view a new exhibit at the Apollo/Saturn V Center, the Apollo Treasures Gallery.
July 16: Attend the NASA History Panel’s Apollo 40th Anniversary Symposium, which will take place at NASA Headquarters Auditorium in Washington, D.C. at 1 p.m. EDT. The discussion will also be broadcast live on NASA TV.
July 18: Catch a free concert at the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts. “Salute to Apollo: The Kennedy Legacy” will feature Denyce Graves, Chaka Kahn, Jamia Nash, narrators Buzz Aldrin and Scott Altman, and the Soldiers Chorus of the U.S. Army Field Band.
July 19: Join the festivities of Moonfest 2009, hosted by NASA Ames Research Center just outside of Mountain View, California. The day includes a variety of exhibitors, speakers, music, and kids’ activities.
July 19: Catch up with the Apollo 11 crew members as they host the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum’s Annual John H. Glenn Lecture. The event is sold out, but the event will still air live at 8 p.m. EDT on NASA TV.
July 20: Watch as NASA and the Newseum of Washington, D.C., broadcast a special panel event commemorating the first human landing on the Moon. The panel will include Apollo astronauts Buzz Aldrin and CHARLIE Duke, among others. You can watch the 2 p.m. EDT panel discussion on NASA TV or from one of six museums and science centers (Boston Museum of Science; California Science Center, Los Angeles; Denver Museum of Nature and Science; Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago; St. Louis Science Center; and American Museum of Natural History, New York).
Photo courtesy of NASA
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