50th Anniversary of the Moon Landing
11 Jul 2019
July 20th, 2019 is the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 and the first moon Landing. On this day, Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong were the first humans to ever land on the moon. This monumental event not only pioneered space travel and exploration, but united Americans in the achievement of a near impossible dream.
The first moon landing inspired author James Hansen to write his best-selling book turned major motion picture, First Man, the first and only authorized biography of Neil Armstrong. In addition, others were moved by the leadership exhibited by Aldrin and Armstrong, including astronaut Mike Massimino who, with his team, upgraded the Hubble Space Telescope and was the first astronaut to tweet from space. It paved the way for Steve Smith, who took four space flights covering 16 million miles. It led Anousheh Ansari to achieve her goal of becoming the first Iranian woman in space. The mission also sparked the curiosity of scientists like B. Gentry Lee, who was part of engineering the twin rover missions to Mars, and Steven Squyres who was the principal investigator for the Mars Exploration Rover Mission.
Without this astonishing mission 50 years ago, the advancements made to our planet would not be possible today. Apollo 11 paved the way for numerous scientific achievements, allowing experts on space travel to share with audiences insights on the future of science, technology and more.