On July 20, 1969, the Apollo 11 lunar module Eagle landed in the Sea of Tranquility, and humans stepped foot on the Moon for the first time. The spacesuit Neil Armstrong wore on this historic mission is in the collection of the National Air and Space Museum, and for the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, we sought to make it even more accessible to visitors around the country. As part of a Kickstarter to conserve and digitize Neil Armstrong’s spacesuit, and put it back on display for the first time in over a decade, the spacesuit was 3D scanned. Those scans were used to create an authentic replica of the suit to give visitors a look at the suit’s many intricate details.
The statues were displayed at Major League ballparks around the country during the 2019 season, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the first Moon landing. Those statues are now in their permanent homes at museums around the country and world:
- Air Zoo Aerospace & Science Experience – Portage, Michigan
- Armstrong Air & Space Museum – Wapakoneta, Ohio
- Columbia Memorial Space Center – Downey, California
- Cosmosphere – Hutchinson, Kansas
- Farnsworth Aerospace – Saint Paul, Minnesota
- Fernbank Science Center – Atlanta, Georgia
- Framingham State University - Framingham, Massachusetts
- Senator John Heinz History Center – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- Hiller Aviation Museum – San Francisco, California
- Peoria Riverfront Museum – Peoria, Illinois
- Space Center Houston – Houston, Texas
- Tampa Bay History Center – Tampa Bay, Florida
- U.S. Mission to International Organizations – Vienna, Austria
- Western Reserve Historical Society – Cleveland, Ohio