Moon Landing Anniversary Is Upon Us

The cosmos is providing a full moon for the 55th anniversary of the first lunar landing this weekend, and plenty of other events honor Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's giant leap. Aldrin, 94, the last surviving member of the Apollo 11 crew, headlines a gala at the San Diego Air and Space Museum on Saturday night. He'll be joined by astronaut Charlie Duke, who was the voice inside Mission Control for the July 20, 1969, moon landing. Can't make it to San Diego, Cape Canaveral, or Houston? There are plenty of other ways to celebrate the moon landing, including the new film Fly Me to the Moon, a light-hearted lookback starring Scarlett Johansson. Here's a rundown of some Apollo 11 tributes:

• Moon fest: NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida is holding a moon fest just a few miles from where the Saturn V rocket thundered away with Armstrong, Aldrin, and Michael Collins on July 16, 1969. Houston's Johnson Space Center, home to Mission Control, is also getting into the act.
• Honoring the moment: Four days after they left Earth, Armstrong and Aldrin, in their lunar module, Eagle, settled onto the Sea of Tranquility at 4:17pm Eastern with barely any fuel remaining. "Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed," Armstrong radioed from 240,000 miles away. "No moment united the country quite like when the Eagle landed, as all of planet Earth watched from below," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said.
• In Ohio: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind," Armstrong proclaimed as he became the first person to step on the moon. Armstrong grew up in northwestern Ohio's Wapakoneta, now home to the Armstrong Air and Space Museum. The museum's tribute Saturday begins with a pair of "Run to the Moon" races, followed by model rocket launches and wind tunnel demos.
• Splashdown party: The capsule holding Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins—dubbed Columbia—splashed down in the Pacific on July 24, 1969. They were recovered by the USS Hornet, a Navy aircraft carrier that repeated the job for Apollo 12 four months later. The Hornet is now part of a museum in Alameda, California, with a splashdown party planned aboard the ship on Saturday. Some of the original recovery crew will be there.
• Smithsonian: Aldrin followed Armstrong outside on the moon, uttering "Magnificent desolation." They spent just over two hours treading the dusty surface, before returning to their lunar module and blasting off to link back up with Collins, the command module pilot who had remained in lunar orbit. Armstrong's spacesuit for the moonshot was restored in time for the 50th anniversary in 2019. It's on display at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, along with their return capsule. Aldrin and Collins' spacesuits from Apollo 11 are also part of the Smithsonian collection and currently in storage. Collins died in 2021, less than a year after the 50th anniversary; Armstrong died in 2012.

(More Apollo 11 stories.)