As the museum makes plans to move the Apollo Lunar Module into the new Boeing Milestones of Flight Hall, curator Paul Ceruzzi will recreate, using recently-found audio files, the final five minutes of the Apollo 11 descent to the lunar surface on July 20, 1969. Communications between the LM crew, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, and the various members of Mission Control in Houston, will be replayed and explained, and the technical jargon “decoded” for our visitors.
Meet at the Museum "Great Seal", in the Boeing Milestones of Flight Hall on the first floor.
About the Ask an Expert lecture series: Every Wednesday at noon in the National Mall Building, a Museum staff member talks to the public about the history, collection, or personalities related to a specific artifact or exhibition in the Museum.
The Apollo 11 Lunar Module ascent stage, with Astronauts Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin E. Aldrin Jr. aboard, is photographed from the Command and Service Modules (CSM) during rendezvous in lunar orbit. The Lunar Module (LM) was making its docking approach to the CSM. Astronaut Michael Collins remained with the CSM in lunar orbit while the other two crewmen explored the lunar surface. The large, dark-colored area in the background is Smyth's Sea, centered at 85 degrees east longitude and 2 degrees south latitude on the lunar surface (nearside). This view looks west. The Earth rises above the lunar horizon.