40th anniversary of Apollo 11 celebrated in Liverpool, UK
Forty years ago a world watched breathless as humanity achieved something incredible. Putting men on the Moon marked a leap in science and technology. It signaled a new era of exploration, when pioneers would photograph places few had ever imagined. How proud Messrs Ptolemy and Galileo would have been of our orbital Columbus (or rather Ericson), Neil Armstrong.
Soon the whole episode will pass from living memory. That is why this anniversary is as historic as the events we are celebrating.
Although NASA was created in July 1958, two-and-a-half years prior to John F. Kennedy taking office, it was the 35th President of the United States who became the author of the Space Race. Yet the choice to go to the Moon by the end of the decade was not only one of triumph but tragedy too.
It may have been a time when anything seemed possible, nevertheless to issue such an audacious challenge after a total of just 20 minutes manned space flight experience created an artificial timetable. The 1962 pledge was not just hard; it was foolhardy. Remember this was a president still smarting from the Bay of Pigs fiasco, so it was his objective to move the frontline of the Cold War from Operation Mongoose to Operation Moon.
With only three years remaining to fulfill Kennedy’s dream the pressure to deliver was intense. As the Space Race stepped up a gear, corners were cut and as training was underway for the first manned Apollo mission there were already concerns about the dangers. So it came as no great surprise when all three astronauts on board Apollo 1 perished during pre-flight tests. But risk is the price of progress, relatives patriotically reminded the nation. (As did Chris Kraft on the eve of the 40th anniversary at the Smithsonian Museum.) And after Russian advances, the American’s suddenly faced a big decision: play it safe, moving in small steps through space and risk falling behind the Soviets, or take an unplanned leap to the Moon to assure being first.
Enter Apollo 8. How it pulled of its mission was a miracle, not least because the Saturn V rocket had been test fired only twice before launch. It is said that they went to explore the Moon but discovered planet Earth. The huge milestone of Apollo 8 remains, however, that humans reached the Moon. The final task now waited: to land on it. In other words, small steps taken by Apollo 8, 9, and 10 paved the way for one giant leap from Apollo 11 less than six month’s before the late president’s famous deadline.
“While the Apollo programme was wholly motivated by strategic political considerations,” André Balogh, Emeritus Professor of Space Physics at Imperial College London, reminds us in July’s History Today, “the Moon landings also brought important scientific results through observations made on the Moon’s surface and by bringing back a total of about 368kg of lunar samples.” Indeed Apollo mission findings support the scenario in which material ejected from a collison between Earth and a Mars-sized body at the dawn of the Solar System coalesced to form the Moon.
Balogh is one of four British space scientists who saluted the men with the “right stuff” on the eve of the anniversary. The same cannot be said for Britons more generally, however. A recent survey reveals that a quarter of Britons believe the Apollo 11 mission was a hoax. (Polling by Gallup shows that 6 percent of Americans think they have never made it to the lunar surface, with another 5 percent uncertain of their opinion.)
That said, even as Americans celebrated at the Smithsonian and the White House, many Brits celebrated at Spaceport and World Museum. But as comprehensively as “One Small Step” and “Magnificent Desolation” tell the story of the Saturn launches and Apollo landings, the strategic costs and scientific benefits are not told as comprehensively.
Still extremely rare fragments of the Moon’s surface, loaned by NASA, are a unique element of “One Small Step” at Spaceport in Merseyside. As part of their preservation, the fragments of lunar rock can only be on show for three periods of the exhibition—between April 9 to 24; May 22 to June 1 and; July 28 to September 4. While this is understandable, it is a travesty that an exhibition launched wholly in celebration of the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11 does not display on July 20 fragments retrieved by an Apollo mission.
Across the River Mersey at World Museum, Liverpool, however, there are samples (six in all) of rocks and soil collected from the lunar surface. Yet the main attraction here is “Magnificent Desolation,” a brand new planetarium show about the Moon and the Apollo missions that went there. Even though little separates the two shows in terms of duration (25 minutes), in terms of quality, “Magnificent Desolation” and “We are Astronomers” (showing at Spaceport) could not be more apart, with the former lagging behind the latter.
Come July 28—and the next period lunar samples are on show—Spaceport would do well to combine the scientific benefits with the strategic benefits by including a graphic panel (or video segment like that with JFK’s 1961 address to Congress) of Armstrong’s closing remarks in the 2009 John H. Glenn Lecture:
“It was the ultimate peaceful competition: USA vs USSR. I’ll not assert that it was a diversion which prevented a war, nevertheless it was a diversion… Eventually, it provided a mechanism for engendering co-operation between former adversaries. In that sense, among others, it was an exceptional national investment for both sides.”
Soon the whole episode will pass from living memory. That is why this anniversary is as historic as the events we are celebrating.
Although NASA was created in July 1958, two-and-a-half years prior to John F. Kennedy taking office, it was the 35th President of the United States who became the author of the Space Race. Yet the choice to go to the Moon by the end of the decade was not only one of triumph but tragedy too.
It may have been a time when anything seemed possible, nevertheless to issue such an audacious challenge after a total of just 20 minutes manned space flight experience created an artificial timetable. The 1962 pledge was not just hard; it was foolhardy. Remember this was a president still smarting from the Bay of Pigs fiasco, so it was his objective to move the frontline of the Cold War from Operation Mongoose to Operation Moon.
With only three years remaining to fulfill Kennedy’s dream the pressure to deliver was intense. As the Space Race stepped up a gear, corners were cut and as training was underway for the first manned Apollo mission there were already concerns about the dangers. So it came as no great surprise when all three astronauts on board Apollo 1 perished during pre-flight tests. But risk is the price of progress, relatives patriotically reminded the nation. (As did Chris Kraft on the eve of the 40th anniversary at the Smithsonian Museum.) And after Russian advances, the American’s suddenly faced a big decision: play it safe, moving in small steps through space and risk falling behind the Soviets, or take an unplanned leap to the Moon to assure being first.
Enter Apollo 8. How it pulled of its mission was a miracle, not least because the Saturn V rocket had been test fired only twice before launch. It is said that they went to explore the Moon but discovered planet Earth. The huge milestone of Apollo 8 remains, however, that humans reached the Moon. The final task now waited: to land on it. In other words, small steps taken by Apollo 8, 9, and 10 paved the way for one giant leap from Apollo 11 less than six month’s before the late president’s famous deadline.
“While the Apollo programme was wholly motivated by strategic political considerations,” André Balogh, Emeritus Professor of Space Physics at Imperial College London, reminds us in July’s History Today, “the Moon landings also brought important scientific results through observations made on the Moon’s surface and by bringing back a total of about 368kg of lunar samples.” Indeed Apollo mission findings support the scenario in which material ejected from a collison between Earth and a Mars-sized body at the dawn of the Solar System coalesced to form the Moon.
Balogh is one of four British space scientists who saluted the men with the “right stuff” on the eve of the anniversary. The same cannot be said for Britons more generally, however. A recent survey reveals that a quarter of Britons believe the Apollo 11 mission was a hoax. (Polling by Gallup shows that 6 percent of Americans think they have never made it to the lunar surface, with another 5 percent uncertain of their opinion.)
That said, even as Americans celebrated at the Smithsonian and the White House, many Brits celebrated at Spaceport and World Museum. But as comprehensively as “One Small Step” and “Magnificent Desolation” tell the story of the Saturn launches and Apollo landings, the strategic costs and scientific benefits are not told as comprehensively.
Still extremely rare fragments of the Moon’s surface, loaned by NASA, are a unique element of “One Small Step” at Spaceport in Merseyside. As part of their preservation, the fragments of lunar rock can only be on show for three periods of the exhibition—between April 9 to 24; May 22 to June 1 and; July 28 to September 4. While this is understandable, it is a travesty that an exhibition launched wholly in celebration of the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11 does not display on July 20 fragments retrieved by an Apollo mission.
Across the River Mersey at World Museum, Liverpool, however, there are samples (six in all) of rocks and soil collected from the lunar surface. Yet the main attraction here is “Magnificent Desolation,” a brand new planetarium show about the Moon and the Apollo missions that went there. Even though little separates the two shows in terms of duration (25 minutes), in terms of quality, “Magnificent Desolation” and “We are Astronomers” (showing at Spaceport) could not be more apart, with the former lagging behind the latter.
Come July 28—and the next period lunar samples are on show—Spaceport would do well to combine the scientific benefits with the strategic benefits by including a graphic panel (or video segment like that with JFK’s 1961 address to Congress) of Armstrong’s closing remarks in the 2009 John H. Glenn Lecture:
“It was the ultimate peaceful competition: USA vs USSR. I’ll not assert that it was a diversion which prevented a war, nevertheless it was a diversion… Eventually, it provided a mechanism for engendering co-operation between former adversaries. In that sense, among others, it was an exceptional national investment for both sides.”