On July 20, 1969, the world watched as Neil Armstrong opened the hatch of the Eagle and stepped outside onto a barren lunar landscape. Buzz Aldrin followed him out the door and they became the first humans to ever walk on the moon. All the while, their third crewmate, Michael Collins, sat in a lonely orbit around moon in the Columbia command module.
The three Apollo 11 astronauts launched toward the moon on July 16, 1969, and returned heroes in a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on July 24. Only 10 more people would ever put their boots on powdery moon dirt (said to smell like gunpowder), and no humans have returned since Apollo 17 blasted off the lunar surface on December 14, 1972.
July 20, 2014 will mark the 45th anniversary of the first moonwalk. NASA has planned a slew of events to reflect on the historic landing and look ahead to the future of space exploration. [ NASA's Historic Apollo 11 Moon Landing in Pictures]
Here's a sampling of NASA events from around the country that you can participate in virtually or in person in the coming days:
Friday, July 18
Sunday, July 20
At 10:39 p.m. EDT (0239 GMT July 21), NASA will mark the exact moment Neil Armstrong opened the spacecraft hatch to take his first step on the barren lunar surface. NASA TV will replay the restored footage of the historic moonwalk.
Monday, July 21
At 10:00 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT), NASA TV will broadcast the renaming ceremony of the Operations and Checkout Building at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, which processed and tested the command, service and lunar modules during the Apollo program. The building will be named for Armstrong, who died in 2012. Participants will include NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and Armstrong's Apollo 11 crewmates, Collins and Aldrin.
Thursday, July 24
At 6:00 p.m. EDT (2200 GMT), the space agency will tap into the geekery of Comic-Con International in San Diego, California, with a panel called NASA's Next Giant Leap. The discussion will be moderated by actor Seth Green and will feature Aldrin, NASA Planetary Science Division Director Jim Green, 'Mohawk Guy' Bobak Ferdowsi, and NASA astronaut Mike Fincke. Entities 0 Name: NASA Count: 12 1 Name: Aldrin Count: 4 2 Name: California Count: 2 3 Name: Neil Armstrong Count: 2 4 Name: Armstrong Count: 2 5 Name: Next Giant Leap Count: 1 6 Name: Intrepid Sea Count: 1 7 Name: Pasadena Count: 1 8 Name: Collins Count: 1 9 Name: Seth Green Count: 1 10 Name: Columbia Count: 1 11 Name: Comic-Con International Count: 1 12 Name: San Diego Count: 1 13 Name: moon Count: 1 14 Name: New York Count: 1 15 Name: Morgan Freeman Count: 1 16 Name: Reid Wiseman Count: 1 17 Name: Pacific Ocean Count: 1 18 Name: Charles Bolden Count: 1 19 Name: NASA Planetary Science Division Count: 1 20 Name: Florida Count: 1 21 Name: Mike Fincke Count: 1 22 Name: Bobak Ferdowsi Count: 1 23 Name: Michael Collins Count: 1 24 Name: Jim Green Count: 1 25 Name: Mike Massimino Count: 1 26 Name: Intrepid Space and Science Festival Count: 1 Related 0 Url: http://ift.tt/1skzVeQ Title: 45 Years Ago We Landed Men on the Moon Description: Tomorrow will mark the 45th anniversary of the July 16, 1969 launch of Apollo 11, the NASA mission that first landed human beings on the Moon. Years of effort, dangerous experiments, and bold missions led up to the Moon landing, an event watched on live television by millions around the world.
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