“Destination Moon: The Apollo 11 Mission” makes a stop in Pittsburgh
NASA/Johnson Space Center
Portrait of the prime crew of the Apollo 11 lunar landing mission: Commander Neil A. Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins, and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin E. Aldrin Jr. On July 20th 1969 at 4:18 p.m., EDT the Lunar Module “Eagle” landed in a region of the Moon called the Mare Tranquillitatis, also known as the Sea of Tranquillity. After securing his spacecraft, Armstrong radioed back to earth: “Houston, Tranquility Base here, the Eagle has landed.” At 10:56 p.m. that same evening and witnessed by a worldwide television audience, Neil Armstrong stepped off the Eagle’s landing pad onto the lunar surface and said, “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.” He became the first human to set foot upon the Moon.
NASA/ Headquarters
Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, lunar module pilot of the first lunar landing mission, poses for a photograph beside the deployed United States flag during an Apollo 11 Extravehicular Activity on the lunar surface. The Lunar Module is on the left, and the footprints of the astronauts are clearly visible in the soil of the Moon. Astronaut Neil A. Armstrong, commander, took this picture with a 70mm Hasselblad lunar surface camera.
The Senator John Heinz History Center in the Strip District is one of just four museums nationally and the only site east of the Mississippi River to host the Smithsonian traveling exhibition, “Destination Moon: The Apollo 11 Mission,” which will explore the Space Race and Apollo 11 mission, when astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first human to walk on the Moon on July 20, 1969, and famously declared to a worldwide television audience, “That’s one small step for (a) man … one giant leap for mankind.”
The exhibit will mark a once-in-a-lifetime chance for visitors to see an American treasure in Pittsburgh – the Command Module Columbia. The Columbia is the only portion of the spacecraft to complete the first mission to “land a man on the Moon and safely return him to Earth,” as President John F. Kennedy boldly promised in 1961.
Courtesy NASA
Astronaut Buzz Aldrin walks on the surface of the Moon near the leg of the lunar module Eagle during the Apollo 11 extravehicular activity.
The exhibit will also showcase how Pittsburgh innovators and companies, including Westinghouse, North American Rockwell, Wabtec’s Union Switch & Signal, American Bridge Company, MSA, Allegheny Ludlum (now ATI), and others, played a crucial role in the success of the Apollo space program.
“Destination Moon: The Apollo 11 Mission” launches Sept. 29. For more information, visit pghhistory.org.
Eric Long, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution
Apollo 11 command module Columbia on temporary cradle.