Not only do the findings point to a way in which a historical record of Earth's atmosphere could be deposited on the moon, but they also imply a healthy abundance of elements that could be useful to humans should we ever set up a lunar base.

In samples of lunar regolith brought back from the moon by Apollo astronauts, scientists have found puzzling amounts of volatiles, which in this case are elements such as water, carbon dioxide, helium, argon and nitrogen that have low boiling or sublimation points. Some of these volatiles are brought to the moon from the sun via the solar wind, but the abundances of these volatiles, particularly nitrogen, cannot solely be explained by the solar wind.

So, in 2005, scientists at the University of Tokyo proposed that some of the volatiles have come from Earth, as particles leaking out from our planet's upper atmosphere when they receive a nudge from energetic particles riding the solar wind. However, the Tokyo scientists believed this could only have happened in the early days of Earth's history, before our planet had a chance to develop a strong global magnetic field that they thought would block particles from escaping.

However, a team at the University of Rochester now suggest that this assessment was wrong.

The Rochester team, led by graduate student Shubhonkar Paramanick and astronomy professor Eric Blackman, used computer simulations to model when these volatile particles could have reached the moon based on two different scenarios.

One scenario depicted the early Earth, when our planet's magnetic field was weak and the solar wind was much stronger, describing the period in Earth's history when the Tokyo team reckoned that our atmosphere was more susceptible to being lost to space. The other scenario represented the modern Earth environment, with a stronger planetary field and a weaker solar wind emanating from the older sun.

Somewhat unexpectedly, the Rochester team found that the modern Earth scenario was actually more adept at transporting Earth's atmospheric particles to the moon.

That's because the simulations showed that, rather than blocking the particles' escape route, the Earth's magnetic field provided a highway for the particles. Some of our planet's magnetic-field lines are long enough to reach all the way to the moon.

In 2024, researchers at the University of Oxford found evidence in 3.7-billion-year-old iron-rich rocks in Greenland that the ancient Earth had a magnetic field comparable in strength to today. This is the oldest evidence we have of Earth's magnetic field, so from at least that time, and possibly earlier, through to today Earth's atmosphere has been leaking bit by bit into space and onto the moon.

"By combining data from particles preserved in lunar soil with computational modeling of how the solar wind interacts with Earth's atmosphere, we can trace the history of Earth's atmosphere and its magnetic field," said Blackman in a statement.

This means that the lunar regolith could still hold a very long-term record of Earth's atmospheric history, which in turn could teach us about how Earth's climate, environment and even life has changed over billions of years. Furthermore, the insights gained don't have to be confined to our planet.

"Our study may also have broader implications for understanding early atmospheric escape on planets like Mars, which lacks a global magnetic field today but had one similar to Earth in the past, along with a likely thicker atmosphere," said Paramanick. "By examining planetary evolution alongside atmospheric escape across different epochs, we can gain insight into how these processes shape planetary habitability."

Elsewhere in the solar system, Pluto's thin atmosphere also leaks onto its largest moon, Charon, although Pluto does not have an intrinsic magnetic field with which to transport its atmospheric particles. Instead, it is Charon's gravity that tugs at the particles in Pluto's atmosphere, with Pluto's weak gravity allowing the atmospheric particles to be stolen away.

This swapping of atmospheric atoms and molecules could also have positive repercussions for a future human presence on the moon. Water, for example, has obvious uses. (Water was also brought to the moon long ago by asteroid and comet impacts.) The fact that the stream of particles from Earth to the moon has been flowing for so long means that more volatiles than scientists expect might have built up on the lunar surface, just waiting for astronauts to extract them. In a way, it could be the ultimate down payment toward a human presence on the moon.

Then findings were published on Dec. 11 in the journal Communications Earth & Environment.

From the fiery launch pads to the silent, dusty plains of the lunar surface, Apollo missions redefined what was possible and ignited imaginations across the globe.

This quiz invites you to journey back through the triumphs and trials of the Apollo era.

Whether you're a seasoned space enthusiast or a curious newcomer, you'll encounter questions that span the program's technical marvels, iconic astronauts and unforgettable moments.

Try it out below and see how well you score!

Interest in the moon has been high – just in the past two years there have been 12 attempts to send missions to the moon, nearly half of which private companies undertook. With so much activity, it's important to start thinking about coordination and safety.

To some, this concern may seem premature. About 10 to 20 missions are headed to the moon in the next few years – far short of the thousands of satellites operating in Earth's orbit. And the area around the moon, referred to as cislunar space, is very large. Earth's orbital area is often considered to extend from near Earth out to geostationary orbit, where a spacecraft orbits at a speed that makes it appear stationary from the Earth's surface.

Cislunar space extends from geostationary orbit out to the moon – an area with a volume 2,000 times larger than Earth's orbital area. This size discrepancy seems to suggest crowding around the moon may not be an immediate concern.

However, missions tend to choose from a select set of stable orbits around the moon, so the vastness of cislunar space may be misleading when thinking about whether missions will intersect. Also, most government sensors that track spacecraft aren't capable of consistently detecting and monitoring objects so far away from Earth, partly due to the glare from the moon itself.

That uncertainty, combined with the high cost of lunar missions, makes operators more likely to move their spacecraft to avoid a collision, even when the probability of a collision is quite low.

As an interdisciplinary team combining space policy and astrodynamics expertise, we've been studying how companies and space agencies could manage traffic in lunar orbit without unnecessary maneuvers. Our research, published in March 2025 in the Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets, shows that due to the popularity of certain orbits and the uncertainties regarding each spacecraft's location, potential collisions become an issue surprisingly quickly.

Our simulations show that with only 50 satellites in lunar orbit, each of those satellites will need to maneuver four times a year on average to avoid a potential crash – a significant cost in terms of fuel as well as potential disruption to mission objectives. Lunar orbit could easily reach that number of satellites within a decade if activity continues to increase.

Maneuvering satellites

Countries' reports on their current operations in lunar orbit seem to support our finding that congestion around the moon is quickly becoming a significant issue. In 2023, the Indian Space Research Organization reported it had maneuvered its Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft three times in four years, even though only six spacecraft orbited the moon in that time.

Better monitoring and coordination between different space agencies could prevent congestion and keep countries from having to regularly move their spacecraft.

Monitoring cislunar space is not just important for safety – it can also help support national security. Multiple countries have weapons that can destroy satellites, and some in the space community are concerned that space weapons could be placed in cislunar space to escape detection. The U.S. Space Force is considering the potential security dimensions of cislunar space.

The U.S. currently has significant gaps in its ability to monitor this region, and Mariel's research suggests that developing this capability – referred to as cislunar space domain awareness – should be a priority for national security. Improved monitoring would help the U.S. military observe activity in cislunar space, gather intelligence and assess potential threats.

Solutions in progress

Several research programs are experimenting in this area. The Air Force Research Laboratory is funding a program called Oracle that is developing multiple systems to improve the U.S. ability to monitor cislunar space.

The first Oracle satellite is expected to launch in 2027. It will be located at a Lagrange point, which is a spot between the Earth and the Moon where the gravitational pull of each object keeps the spacecraft in a stable position. From there, it can detect objects in cislunar space that sensors on Earth cannot see.

Improving monitoring is only one part of the solution. Entities sending missions to the moon, including governments and companies, will need to share the locations of their operational missions and coordinate to avoid predicted collisions.

A NASA program dedicated to tracking and assessing lunar traffic is helping to facilitate this effort. The program compares individual operators' information about their spacecraft's current and future planned location to identify potential close approaches. In the future, this type of coordination could improve safety, when combined with sensor observations from systems like Oracle.

Countries and companies planning missions to the moon could also try to coordinate before they launch their systems, so no missions end up operating too close together.

The Outer Space Treaty, a set of basic principles developed early in the space age, requires that countries avoid harmfully interfering with other countries' activities, but the treaty doesn't outline how to do this.

The United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space formed a team in February 2025 that hopes to address these and other coordination issues on the moon.

With government and commercial missions to the moon increasing, and NASA's next human mission to the Moon planned for early 2026, countries will need to work together to protect everyone’s interest in the moon.

Often overlooked as the middle child of the American space program in that turbulent decade, Project Gemini provided astronauts, scientists and engineers vital information for the development of more ambitious human spaceflight efforts.

"Gemini: Stepping Stone to the Moon, the Untold Story" (St. Martin's Press, 2025) is an absorbing new release arriving on Nov. 11 written by noted space historian, journalist and New York Times bestselling author Jeffrey Kluger ("Apollo 8," "Holdout").

It offers up the riveting tale of the valiant souls both high aloft and on the ground whose unyielding efforts made possible the groundbreaking data that allowed for six crewed lunar excursions. Kluger also co-authored the 1994 book "Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13" with famed NASA astronaut Jim Lovell, which was adapted into director Ron Howard’s film "Apollo 13."

Here within Kluger's engrossing prose, the New York City-based author paints a vivid portrait of Gemini's endeavors, from its harrowing inception to its triumphant end, with exacting detail.

"I had long thought that a book on Gemini was sort of owed to the world," Kluger told Space.com. "That sounds a little grandiose to say that I'm giving the world a gift; I don't pretend I'm doing that. But there's nobody who addressed and wrote about and explored the Mercury program better and more compellingly than Tom Wolfe. I don't know if there’s ever going to be another book about the Mercury program, because how do you touch 'The Right Stuff?'

"Similarly, I and Andy Chaikin and a number of others, including a lot of astronauts, have written extensively about the Apollo program. But the Gemini program was very much the middle sibling of the space program. It wasn’t the first time we went into space. It wasn't when we went to the moon. People sort of forgot about Gemini. It was the middle seat on an airliner."

Kluger reminds us that Gemini was a program in which we learned to walk in space, rendezvous and dock in space, learned to fly long-duration missions in space, and learned to coordinate with other crewed spacecraft, on the Gemini 6 and Gemini 7 missions.

"There was drama, there was accomplishment, there was death, there was near death, there was peril. Gemini 8's spinout almost took the lives of Dave Scott and Neil Armstrong," Kluger said. "The Gemini 9 spacewalk could have taken the life of Gene Cernan. Charles Bassett and Elliot See did die when their plane crashed into the McDonnell Aviation headquarters in early 1966. And that story hadn’t been told. I felt like it was time to give the Gemini program its due. It was an opportunity not to be missed. It was unprotected turf, and I decided to claim it."

The Gemini launches were filled with monumental firsts, and Kluger's careful research into the topic exposed harsh truths about just how crucial and dangerous these NASA orbital missions were.

"Those monumental firsts are historically well recorded. Alexei Leonov became the first human being to walk in space, shortly before Gemini 4 flew. But when Gemini 4 did fly, Ed White became the first American to walk in space," Kluger said.

"The Soviets launched a couple of missions with two spacecraft at a time and overstated their accomplishment in calling it 'rendezvous.' In fact, these ships simply happened to be up in orbit at the same time and were separated by many kilometers. The mission included none of the delicate navigational dance required to perform rendezvous because they didn’t have the thruster capability, they didn’t have the computer capability and they didn’t have the piloting capability. Gemini 6 and Gemini 7 proved that one spacecraft could track another one in orbit and move within inches.

"Then, by Gemini 8, they actually did touch and dock with an Agena target vehicle. That was a huge milestone in getting to the moon, because we have the lunar orbit rendezvous technique in which the command module and service module had to dock and separate and re-dock in lunar orbit."

Long-duration missions were also completed for the first time during Gemini. Gemini 5 was an eight-day mission. Six days in, that flight broke the record for duration in space that the Soviets had held.

"Then Gemini 7 blew the doors off of Gemini 5 when Jim Lovell and Frank Borman stayed up for 14 days," Kluger shares. "Those were some big milestones, both in the American space program and space exploration in general. Gemini 11 also broke an altitude record using the Agena engine to climb to 856 miles [1,378 kilometers], an Earth orbit record that stood until 2024 when the Polaris Dawn mission with Jared Isaacman at the helm went up and broke that record."

Kluger hopes that readers of his comprehensive new Gemini book take away the sense of just how intrepid these astronauts were, and what an epic achievement their missions turned out to be. So many unknowns became knowns, done in very short order by these true American heroes.

"There were 10 flights that flew over the course of 20 months, which meant that every eight weeks we were rolling out a new Titan rocket, rolling out a new Gemini spacecraft, loading up a new crew, launching them into low-Earth, bringing them home safely, then doing it over again," he explained.

"Just how much excellence and accomplishment and coordination it took on the ground to get these astronauts and spacecraft ready was something really important to be gained from it. Buzz Aldrin was famously known as Dr. Rendezvous. He got his Ph.D. in Orbital Mechanics and Rendezvous from MIT after graduating from West Point, so there was no underestimating Buzz's intellectual wattage. He's a brilliant man, and he accomplished brilliant things."

"Gemini: Stepping Stone to the Moon, the Untold Story" lands in bookstores and online retailers on Nov. 11, 2025.

Inside this hypnotic 320-page hardcover, Benson takes readers into a strange miniaturized world exposed by the technological magic of scanning electron microscopes (SEM).

And here we have a pair of exclusive lunar impact glass images to share with you, taken from moon samples returned by the astronauts of NASA's Apollo 16 mission. Marvel at these diminutive gems brought home from outer space and wrap your mind around the micro-mini scale.

Per the book's official description, "The tiny worlds here, invisible to our unassisted eyes, are if anything more intricate, complex and extraordinary than anything so far seen in deep space. These include radiolarians, dinoflagellates and diatoms, as well as many varieties of insects, microscopic flowers and even lunar samples from the Apollo program. The composite mosaic micrographs in 'Nanocosmos' fuse art and science in revelatory ways, exposing an astonishing sublimity hidden to the naked eye."

Lunar impact glass is formed under the high heat and pressure caused by meteoroids hitting the moon’s regolith-covered surface. These impactors melt the disturbed lunar soil, creating molten material that instantly cools in flight to be manifested as glass shards, spherules and beads.

Benson produced "Nanocosmos" using hundreds of curated SEM scans that he captured over the course of six years at the Canadian Museum of Nature in Quebec. These sublime images display an uncanny beauty, symmetry, and design that defies all traditional descriptions.

In addition to art exhibits, films, and scientific endeavors into the mysteries of the universe, Benson was also responsible for supervising those swirling cosmology scenes in director Terrance Malick's "The Tree of Life" (2011) and "Voyage of Time" (2016). Additionally, he penned 2018's Hollywood history book titled "Space Odyssey" (2018), which chronicles the making of Stanley Kubrick's enigmatic sci-fi masterpiece from 1968, "2001: A Space Odyssey."

In April 2021, NASA awarded Elon Musk's company a $2.9 billion contract to provide the first crewed lunar lander for the agency's Artemis program. That vehicle, a modified upper stage of SpaceX's Starship megarocket, is supposed to land astronauts on the moon for the first time on the upcoming Artemis 3 mission.

But NASA isn't satisfied with the pace of Starship's development and is therefore shaking things up, acting agency chief Sean Duffy announced on Monday (Oct. 20).

"I love SpaceX; it's an amazing company. The problem is, they're behind. They've pushed their timelines out, and we're in a race against China," Duffy said on Monday morning, during an appearance on CNBC's "Squawk Box."

"The president and I want to get to the moon in this president's term, so I'm gonna open up the contract," he added. "I'm gonna let other space companies compete with SpaceX, like Blue Origin."

Blue Origin, which was founded by Amazon's Jeff Bezos, won an Artemis Human Landing System contract of its own in 2023, an award worth $3.4 billion. The company plans to fulfill that deal with its Blue Moon lander, which was originally expected to make its crewed lunar debut on the Artemis 5 mission.

Musk voiced skepticism that Blue Origin could speed up its timeline enough to be ready for a crewed moon mission before SpaceX.

"Blue Origin has never delivered a payload to orbit, let alone the moon," the world's richest person said via X on Monday, qualifying that to "useful payload" in a follow-up post. (Blue Origin's huge New Glenn rocket carried a prototype of the company's Blue Ring spacecraft to Earth orbit on its first — and so far, only — launch this past January.)

Artemis 3's timeline has shifted to the right several times over the past few years, and not just because Starship is still in the testing phase; issues with spacesuits, NASA's Orion capsule and other tech have also played a role. (Orion will carry Artemis astronauts to lunar orbit, where they'll meet up with the lander that will deliver them to the surface.)

The launch date was originally targeted for late 2024 but was pushed back to 2025, September 2026 and then mid-2027.

And NASA is now apparently eyeing an even later timeline: In Monday's "Squawk Box" interview, Duffy suggests that 2028 is the target for Artemis 3.

The Artemis program has one launch under its belt — that of Artemis 1, which successfully sent an uncrewed Orion to and from lunar orbit in late 2022.

NASA is now gearing up for Artemis 2, which will launch four people on a 10-day journey around the moon next year. That mission remains on track to launch as early as February, Duffy said on Monday.

SpaceX's Starship, meanwhile, has launched on 11 suborbital test flights to date. The most recent two liftoffs, which took place on Aug. 26 and Oct. 13, respectively, were fully successful.

As Duffy noted, China has moon plans of its own: The nation plans to land astronauts on Earth's nearest neighbor by 2030 and is making serious progress toward achieving that goal. No humans have touched the lunar surface since NASA's Apollo 17 astronauts did so in December 1972.

The four astronauts of NASA's Artemis 2 mission, who could launch on their trip around the moon as early as Feb. 5, announced today (Sept. 24) that they have named their Orion capsule "Integrity."

"The name Integrity embodies the foundation of trust, respect, candor and humility across the crew and the many engineers, technicians, scientists, planners and dreamers required for mission success," NASA officials said in a statement today.

"The name is also a nod to the extensive integrated effort — from the more than 300,000 spacecraft components to the thousands of people across the world — that must come together to venture to the moon and back, inspire the world and set course for a long-term presence at the moon," they added.

The Artemis 2 crew consists of commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen. The first three are all NASA astronauts, while Hansen represents the Canadian Space Agency.

The quartet will launch atop a Space Launch System rocket during a window that extends from Feb. 5 to April 26 of next year. The astronauts will fly Integrity on a loop around the moon and back home again, on a mission that will last about 10 Earth days.

Artemis 2 won't land on or orbit the moon. But it will be the first crewed mission to reach the lunar neighborhood since Apollo 17 in December 1972. And it will pave the way for Artemis 3, which will put astronauts down near the moon's south pole in 2027, if all goes according to plan.

And things are designed to accelerate from there: The Artemis program aims to establish a permanent, sustainable human presence on and around the moon, and to use the lessons learned via this effort to send astronauts to Mars.

The Artemis 2 crew didn't just pick "Integrity" out of a hat; arriving at the name was a long and drawn-out process, Wiseman said today during a press event at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

"We got the four of us together and our backups, Jenny Gibbons from the Canadian Space Agency and Andre Douglas from NASA, and we went over to the quarantine facility here," Wiseman said. "We basically locked ourselves in there until we came up with a name."

They started with a lot of candidate monikers, he added.

"As we worked our way through this, we went big to small, which this crew does so well," Wiseman said. "And we started with the NASA core values, and then we looked at the Canadian Space Agency core values. And then we talked about what matters to us most in our core values. And then we looked out at what is going on with Artemis 2. What do we want this to be?"

In the end, he said, the crew determined that their chief goal for the mission is to help provide some "peace and hope for all humankind."

"So, we are bringing together the world," Wiseman said. "We are bringing together an amazing workforce, and they are bringing together an amazing vehicle. And at the end of all that, when you squeeze it all down, it created magic. So we're going to fly around the moon in the spacecraft Integrity."

It's a tradition in the human spaceflight world for a new spacecraft to be named by the first astronauts to fly it. For example, a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule made its debut this past June, on the private Ax-4 astronaut mission to the International Space Station. The Ax-4 crew gave that Dragon its name: Grace.

The Light Mantle, which is a bright 5-kilometer-long (3.1 miles) streak emanating from the base of a 2-km-tall (1.2 miles) mountain called South Massif, was a key target for NASA's Apollo 17 mission in 1972. With geologist Harrison Schmitt as a member of the crew, Apollo 17 returned from the moon with 243.6 pounds (110.5 kilograms) of rock samples, including two core samples from the Light Mantle.

There was so much material in the samples that some of it was kept away, stored and sealed, until the time came that scientists had better technology with which to study the samples.

That time is now.

"NASA were really forward-thinking during the Apollo missions to put some samples aside," said geologist Giulia Magnarini of London's Natural History Museum in a statement. "They were stored so that they could be studied using more advanced technology and new scientific approaches that hadn't even been thought of at the time."

The origin of the Light Mantle landslide is a mystery, partly because it is the only known landslide on the moon, meaning that we have nothing to compare it to. It's described as a "long run-out" landslide, as the debris that rolled down the mountain spilled out for a long way onto the Taurus-Littrow valley, but what carried it so far is also uncertain.

Using modern micro-CT scanning, which employed medical-level scans on the previously untouched core samples from the Light Mantle, Magnarini and her colleagues investigated clasts, which are rocky fragments that broke off from the slope of South Massif. They then compared the shape and composition of the clasts with what was predicted by computer models.

"The clasts tell us a lot about the process of the landslide itself and how the material within it has been transported," said Magnarini. "We saw that the finer material coating the clasts in the core comes from the clasts and not the surrounding debris, suggesting that the clasts broke up and helped the landslide to flow more like a fluid."

This would explain why the landslide produced such a long run-out, but what triggered the landslide in the first place? Magnarini's best bet is the formation 108 million years ago of the landmark lunar crater Tycho in the moon's southern hemisphere, far from Apollo 17's landing site.

Tycho is famous for its bright rays of ejecta material that cover a large area of the moon's southern hemisphere, and there are chains of small secondary craters leading away from Tycho, produced by large chunks of debris from the main impact falling back down onto the lunar surface. One of these chains points in the direction of South Massif and, despite the distance, Magnarini thinks that a chunk of debris from the Tycho-forming impact flew halfway around the moon and crashed into South Massif.

"It has been suggested that some of the material thrown up by the creation of Tycho might have struck South massif," said Magnarini. "This could have triggered the landslide that ultimately formed the Light Mantle."

Tycho's young age fits the bill; an older landslide would have been eroded away by micrometeorites long ago. That might be why we no longer see other landslides on the moon; impacts like Tycho are very rare now, compared to 3.5-4 billion years ago when most of the moon's craters formed.

Overall, Magnarini sees her research as helping to bridge the Apollo missions with the current Artemis program and NASA's plans to return astronauts to the surface of the moon.

"We've learned so many lessons from these samples about how to preserve, store and open lunar material without damaging the contents," said Magnarini. "This is already feeding into plans for Artemis' science and helping to develop new instruments."

Magnarini's team's findings were published Aug. 2 in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets.

While some stayed in orbit, others explored lunar valleys, collected samples, and even drove moon buggies across the surface. Each astronaut contributed to our understanding of the moon and helped pave the way for future missions.

In this quiz, you'll be challenged to name all 12 lunar trailblazers.

Think you can list the men who made giant leaps for mankind?

Try it out below and see how well you score!

Jim Lovell passed away on Thursday (Aug. 7) in Lake Forest, Illinois, according to NASA officials. But the astronaut, a veteran of four pioneering spaceflights, left a mark on the agency and the nation that will last far into the future.

"Jim's character and steadfast courage helped our nation reach the moon and turned a potential tragedy into a success from which we learned an enormous amount," acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy said in a statement on Friday (Aug. 8). "We mourn his passing even as we celebrate his achievements."

Lovell joined NASA in September 1962, as part of the agency's second-ever astronaut class. Among his eight colleagues in that group were Apollo 11 moonwalker Neil Armstrong and Ed White, the first American to walk in space.

Lovell first flew to space in December 1965 on Gemini 7, a two-person, two-week-long mission that featured the first-ever rendezvous of two maneuverable crewed spacecraft in Earth orbit. The two-astronaut Gemini 6A capsule came within a mere foot or so of Gemini 7 (carrying Lovell and Frank Borman) high above our planet on Dec. 15 of that year.

On Nov. 11, 1966, Lovell and Buzz Aldrin launched on Gemini 12, which circled Earth for four days. It was the final mission of the Gemini program, which was designed primarily to help pave the way for the Apollo moon push.

Lovell's third spaceflight was Apollo 8, the first crewed mission ever to go beyond Earth orbit. He served as command module pilot and navigator on the six-day flight in December 1968, which successfully went to lunar orbit and back. His crewmates were Borman and William Anders, who snapped the famous "Earthrise" photo on Christmas Eve of that year.

Then came Apollo 13 in April 1970, during which Lovell became the first person ever to reach space four times. He commanded the mission, which also included lunar module pilot Fred Haise and command module pilot Jack Swigert.

Lovell and Haise were supposed to become the fifth and sixth people ever to walk on the moon, but things didn't go according to plan. An oxygen tank in the mission's command and service module exploded, damaging the spacecraft and forcing the three astronauts into survival mode.

They abandoned their moon-landing plans and, working in concert with Mission Control in Houston, "converted their lunar module 'Aquarius' into an effective lifeboat," NASA officials wrote in Lovell's official biography.

"Their emergency activation and operation of lunar module systems conserved both electrical power and water in sufficient supply to assure their safety and survival while in space and for the return to Earth," the officials added.

Lovell wrote about this experience in "Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13" (Houghton Mifflin, 1994). The book, which he co-authored with science journalist Jeffrey Kluger, became the basis for the 1995 movie "Apollo 13," starring Tom Hanks as Lovell.

That movie, incidentally, popularized the phrase "Houston, we have a problem." But it's not entirely accurate; the actual quote — uttered by both Lovell and Swigert — is "Houston, we've had a problem."

James A. Lovell was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on March 25, 1928. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1952 with a bachelor of science degree. That same year, he married Marilyn Gerlach; they would have four children together. (Marilyn passed away in September 2023.)

From 1958 to 1962, Lovell served as a test pilot at the Naval Air Test Center in Patuxent River, Maryland. For part of that time, he was manager for the Navy's F4H "Phantom" Fighter program, which put into service supersonic jets built by McDonnell Douglas.

Overall, Lovell logged more than 7,000 hours of flying time, more than half of which came in jet aircraft, according to his NASA biography.

Lovell retired from the Navy and from NASA in March 1973, two years after completing the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School. He then held several high-level jobs, including executive vice president of the Chicago-based telecom company Centel Corp., a post from which he retired on Jan. 1, 1991.

Lovell had been the oldest surviving Apollo astronaut. That distinction now goes to Aldrin, who is 95. Only five of the 24 astronauts who flew to the moon during the Apollo era are still alive: Aldrin, Charles Duke, Harrison Schmitt, David Scott and Lovell's Apollo 13 crewmate Fred Haise.

The "Neil Armstrong Space Prize" was announced by Purdue University on Sunday (July 20) — the 56th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing — at an event held in Washington, D.C. The honor is intended to share the same clout as the Nobel Prize, but for advancements in space exploration.

"This prize carries Armstrong's name and Purdue's space legacy," said Mung Chiang, president of Purdue University, in a statement released by the school. "We unveil the creation of a Nobel-level prize for space at a transformational time for the next giant leaps in space."

Eight out of Purdue's 22 living astronaut alums joined Chiang at the National Building Museum to help introduce the prize. The Indiana university has the distinction of being the alma matter for more astronauts than any other school (28 in total). The award's namesake, Neil Armstrong, received his undergraduate degree in aeronautical engineering from Purdue in 1955.

Led by seven-time space shuttle mission specialist Jerry Ross, the seven other astronauts at the event included fellow shuttle veterans Roy Bridges, Mark Polansky and Charlie Walker, as well as suborbital fliers Sirisha Bandla, Marc Eagle, Beth Moses and Audrey Powers.

Set to be bestowed for the first time next year, the Armstrong Prize will be awarded in three categories: technologies that improve life on Earth, discoveries that increase our knowledge about the universe and achievements in space exploration that inspire future achievements.

Nominations for individuals or teams to receive the inaugural prize will be accepted beginning in August through Nov. 1, 2025.

The selection committee includes former NASA associate administrator Jim Free, SpaceX Starbase manager Kathy Lueders, former president of Blue Origin Rob Meyerson and the former head of NASA's science division Thomas Zurbuchen. The panel is chaired by Dan Dumbacher, professor of engineering practice at Purdue.

"At a time when space is more accessible than ever, this award aims to inspire the next generation of space leaders while highlighting Purdue's enduring role in space research, exploration, security and partnerships with NASA, the U.S. Space Force and the commercial space sector," said Arvind Raman, the John A. Edwardson Dean of Purdue's College of Engineering.

Fifty years ago today (July 17), at 12:09 p.m. EDT (1609 GMT), history was made as two crewed spacecraft launched by two countries docked together in orbit for the first time. Three American astronauts and two Russian (then Soviet) cosmonauts met up for just under two days of joint operations, setting the stage for future cooperation in space.

"Very good to see you!" exclaimed Alexei Leonov, commander of the Soyuz side of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP, or Experimental-Flight Soyuz-Apollo in the Soviet Union), after the hatch between his spacecraft and the docking adapter was opened.

"Very happy, my friend!" replied U.S. commander Thomas Stafford in "Oklahomski," his unique version of Russian with a heavy Oklahoma drawl.

And then the Cold War rivals and space race competitors shook hands.

Soon after, the rest of the crew — cosmonaut Valery Kubasov and astronauts Vance Brand and Donald "Deke" Slayton — joined in on the greetings. It was those two Americans' first time in space and Kubasov's second. Leonov had previously performed the world's first spacewalk, and Stafford was on his fourth flight; his previous off-Earth experiences included a trip around the moon.

Glasnost and gifts

"Your flight is a momentous event and a very great achievement, not only for the five of you but also for the thousands of American and Soviet scientists and technicians who have worked together for three years to ensure the success of this very historic and very successful experiment in international cooperation," said then-U.S. President Gerald Ford during a call to space from the White House at the time.

"It has taken us many years to open this door to useful cooperation in space between our two countries, and I am confident that the day is not far off when space missions made possible by this first joint effort will be more or less commonplace," Ford said.

To mark the occasion, the crew members exchanged gifts. Plaques and medallions that had been designed to separate into halves — so one half could launch on Apollo and the other on Soyuz — were reassembled in space. The crew also signed formal documents, known as the "Space Magna Carta," that certified that this was this was first international space docking.

The commanders exchanged small flags of each others' countries and tree seeds to be planted later in their respective nations. The Soyuz crew also launched with a United Nations flag, which the American crew then brought back to Earth and which is on display today in the U.N.'s New York headquarters.

The five crew members took turns touring each other's spacecraft and came together for joint meals. Leonov surprised his U.S. counterparts with squeeze tubes labeled as containing vodka — in reality, they were filled with borscht (cold beet soup).

"The best part of a good dinner is not what you eat, but with whom you eat," said Leonov, replying to a reporter's question during a televised, in-flight press conference.

The U.S. and USSR crews returned to their respective spacecraft to sleep, but otherwise worked as one crew as long as their vehicles were linked. After 44 hours, 2 minutes and 51 seconds, the Apollo command module undocked from the Soyuz, and, as planned, created an artificial solar eclipse for the cosmonauts to photograph.

The U.S. crew then approached and docked with the Soyuz again for 2 hours, 52 minutes and 33 seconds before the two crews bid farewell to each and parted ways.

Leonov and Kubasov returned to Earth on July 21, landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan, while Stafford, Brand and Slayton stayed in orbit for another three days, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean on July 24, 1975.

50-year-old foundation

Despite preliminary talks about follow-up missions sending an Apollo capsule or space shuttle to a Soviet Salyut space station, the next time Russians and Americans would meet up in orbit coincided with the 100th U.S. human spaceflight, 20 years (almost to the day) after the ASTP crews exchanged handshakes.

On June 29, 1995, NASA's space shuttle Atlantis docked with Roscosmos' Mir space station. This time it was Vladimir Dezhurov, the commander of Mir's 18th crew, who clasped hands with STS-71 commander Robert "Hoot" Gibson.

The milestone was preceded by Russian cosmonauts flying with U.S. space shuttle crews and NASA astronauts joining Russian Soyuz crews, as well as a shuttle mission rendezvousing (but not docking) with Mir. After STS-71, eight more U.S. missions linked up with the Russian space station to rotate crews and deliver components for the complex.

The Shuttle-Mir program was considered Phase 1 of the International Space Station (ISS) program.

On Nov. 2, 2000, just about midway between the ASTP mission and today, astronaut William "Bill" Shepard and cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev became the first crew to take up residency on board the ISS. Since then, for nearly 25 years, there has not been a day when U.S. astronauts and Russian cosmonauts have not been in space together.

"It made a really huge impression on me to see some people from the Soviet Union, which at the time we were not very good friends with in the middle of the Cold War, and then these brave American astronauts get along really well and cordially and with friendship," Mike Fincke, who as a NASA astronaut is set to return to the International Space Station for his fourth time on SpaceX's Crew-11 launch at the end of this month, said during a July 10 press conference in Houston. Fincke was 8 years old when the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project occurred.

"It made a big impression, not just on me, but on the rest of the world — that if the Soviet Union and United States can work together in space, maybe we can work together here on Earth," he said.

"The results contribute to the safety case for returning humans to the moon," said Brian Oliver, who is a Distinguished Professor of Life Sciences at the University of Technology Sydney, in a statement.

Concerns about the toxicity of moon dust arose during the Apollo missions. Lunar dust is statically charged, allowing it to adhere to astronauts' space suits. After the astronauts clambered back inside their lunar lander following a moonwalk, the dust became airborne in the cabin and was inhaled, leading to the astronauts suffering respiratory problems that faded after about 24 hours. Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt described it as like having "lunar hay fever," with stinging eyes, sneezing and a sore throat.

Moreover, back on Earth, the Apollo flight surgeon reported similar problems after unpacking the used spacesuits. In their case, they reported that the symptoms grew worse after every mission, suggesting that repeated exposure to lunar dust exacerbates its toxicity.

Nevertheless, the anecdotal evidence is not a quantitative measure of the potential harm that lunar dust can do to humans. So Michaela Smith, who is a PhD student at the University of Technology Sydney's Respiratory Research Group, set about finding out.

Smith performed experiments using two lunar simulants – replicas of real lunar dust, since samples of real lunar dust are limited – that are analogous to moon dust found in the moon's dark volcanic lowland plains and its more ancient highlands, respectively. The simulant particles are smaller than 2.5 microns (millionths of a meter), small enough to be inhaled and then trapped in the lower airways of the lungs. To represent lungs, Smith introduced the simulant dust to two different types of lung cell, namely bronchial and alveolar cells, representing the upper and lower regions of the lungs, respectively.

Smith then conducted the same experiment but with airborne particulate matter sampled from a busy Sydney street, and compared the effects of lunar dust with that of air pollution.

Smith found that while the irregular shape and roughness of the lunar dust still irritates the lungs, its effects are significantly less than that of air pollution.

"It's important to distinguish between a physical irritant and a highly toxic substance," said Smith. "Our findings suggest that while lunar dust may cause some immediate irritation to the airways, it does not appear to pose a risk for chronic, long-term diseases like silicosis, which is caused by materials like silica dust [as on a construction site, for example]."

This is good news for NASA, who are still taking the health challenges of moon dust seriously as they plan the Artemis 3 mission that will see humans return to the surface of the moon for the first time since 1972.

For example, one strategy is to have the astronaut's spacesuits affixed to the exterior of the lunar lander, and the astronauts enter and leave the suits through an airlock within the lander without bringing the moon dust stuck to the suits inside the cabin. However, thanks to Smith's work, the problem of moon dust is perhaps no longer quite as serious as had been anticipated.

Smith's findings have been published in Life Sciences in Space Research.

"We've had these samples for 50 years, but we now have the technology to fully understand them," said Ryan Ogliore, a physics professor at Washington University in St Louis, in a statement. "Many of these instruments would have been unimaginable when the beads were first collected."

The tiny beads, less than a millimeter in size, are embedded in lunar rocks and mixed into the lunar regolith. They come in two varieties, orange and black, and were produced when drops of lava in plumes that violently erupted out of volcanoes cooled quickly in the cold vacuum on the lunar surface. Around 3.5 billion years ago, the the moon was drastically volcanically active, forming the dark patches of the lunar maria that today form the "face" of the "Man in the Moon."

"The beads are tiny, pristine capsules of the lunar interior," said Ogliore. "They're some of the most amazing extraterrestrial samples we have."

Ogliore was part of a team led by Thomas Williams, Stephen Parman and Alberto Saal of Brown University in Rhode Island, who deployed a variety of modern microscopic analysis techniques on the beads to learn more about the volcanic conditions in which the beads formed.

The main instrument used was a NanoSIMS 50 ion microprobe at Washington University, which can perform spectrometry at the atomic scale, identifying elements and isotopes, and probing nano-scale structure.

To avoid the subject material being exposed to Earth's atmosphere and reacting with its oxygen, the ion beam cored into the samples, extracting the beads from within them, and then taking care that the material was protected from our atmosphere. The samples were then subjected to a number of analysis techniques, including atom probe tomography, scanning-electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy.

"Even with the advanced techniques we used, these were very difficult measurements to make," said Ogliore.

The measurements told the team about the pressure, temperature and chemistry of the environment that the beads formed in. Indeed, their very existence is proof that the moon had explosive eruptions, "something like the fire fountains that you can see in Hawaii today," said Ogliore.

Yet the color, shape and chemical composition of the lunar glass beads are quite unlike their terrestrial counterparts.

The analysis showed that the glass beads are coated in a layer less than 100 nanometers thick, deposited on the beads as vapor condensed out of the volcanic clouds. As such, probing these nano-layers provides information about those volcanic clouds, from which we can learn more about lunar volcanism.

The nano-layers on the surface of the beads are not smooth, but feature a number of shapes and inhomogeneities described as "micromounds," "lathes," "plaques" and "blebs." The micromounds in particular have a base that is richer in iron than their upper surfaces. This iron gradient is connected to how the pressure in the volcanic plume rapidly decreased in the brief time that it took for the micromounds in the nano-layer to be deposited.

Both the black and orange beads studied in this analysis were recovered by the Apollo 17 mission in 1972 — the only mission to fly with a specialist geologist, Harrison Schmitt, on board — from the Taurus-Littrow Valley in Mare Serenitatis.

The black beads are abundant in zinc-sulfide nanocrystals, and thermochemical modeling of these beads indicates that hydrogen and sulfur were the major elements in the volcanic gas plumes that formed them. Meanwhile, the orange beads lack notable quantities of zinc-sulfide crystals. This suggests a change over time in the conditions of the volcanic eruption that produced the black and orange beads.

"It's like reading the journal of an ancient lunar volcanologist," said Ogliore.

Although the findings are only a small detail in the grand scheme of things, they take us a step closer to understanding the volcanic conditions that formed the Man in the Moon, and why that volcanism occurred in the first place.

The results were published online in April in the journal Icarus.

"The company was started really in 1986 under the Diligent Dwarves name," Gilman, Global Effects' president, told Space.com. "In 1991, when we were doing 'Bram Stoker's Dracula,' I changed it to Global Effects because too many Hollywood people would call and ask, 'Hey, is Dopey there? Is Sleepy there?'"

For nearly 40 years, Gilman's Southern California prop and costume emporium has supplied spacesuits for movies like "Space Cowboys" "First Man," "Deep Impact" and "Armageddon."

The copmany has also dressed countless actors on the small screen, in series such as "From the Earth to the Moon," "For All Mankind" and "Space Force." If you’ve watched any space-based TV show, commercial, or big screen movie with space-bound voyagers, chances are it's featured a Global Effects suit.

The son of a Connecticut aerospace machinist and himself a skilled metal fabricator and welder, Gilman came to Hollywood in the '80s to work as a stuntman, prop designer and armorer. Gilman's meticulously constructed replica spacesuits are so accurate that they might fool NASA engineers, as extreme care, detail and research is put into each precision outfit.

"In our spacesuit collection for movies, we have replicas of pretty much every historic spacesuit that's been into space and many prototypes that were developed along the way," he notes. "All the Apollo suits, Gemini, Mercury. The only one I don’t think we have is a soft Gemini suit. And then we have our science fiction suits that we've created. I try to design those using a real element, but they can be pretty crazy. Like, we did an armored spacesuit that was in 'Firefly' and 'Serenity.' I think we have close to 300."

At Global Effects' warehouse headquarters, the aisles and shelves are brimming with an incredible selection of fashionable outer space gear patterned after actual NASA artifacts.

"We have Ryan Gosling's 'First Man' suit. A lot of our suits have been used in multiple projects. For our ACES suits, I've had Ron Perlman, Aaron Eckhart, Hillary Swank, Clint Eastwood, Jim Garner, Donald Sutherland, all of Aerosmith. Tons of people have worn our suits. We had Buzz Aldrin in one of our Apollo suits for 'The Late Show.' I almost put Al Bean in one of our suits, too," Gilman said.

"There was a BBC interview done with James May, and they asked too many astronaut questions and not enough artist questions, and the interview was cut short," he added. "I ended up dressing James May in an Apollo suit in a parking lot in Texas. That was kind of fun."

There are restrictions on renting these special suits, and the general public can’t just drop by and walk out the door with one. You must have liability insurance and replacement insurance. A general homeowners' policy is not going to cover a spacesuit.

"The real EMU spacesuits have 19,000 parts, and I've heard figures of $12-15 million per suit ,and that was figured by the entire program divided by the number of suits they delivered to NASA. Our suits have about 1,600 custom-made parts and cost about $130,000 to produce. I tell producers that, for 1% the cost, you get 99% the look. I've had our ACES suits and EMUs next to real ones, and I've had a number of NASA personnel come up and think that the one that was theirs was ours, and they're shocked."

What drives Gilman nuts about inauthentic spacesuits, and what does Hollywood often goof up in its attempt to depict astronauts in their signature wardrobes?

"The general public doesn't understand that a full spacesuit is a personal spacecraft," Gilman explained. "It has to be pressured. It's only 4.3 pounds per square inch, but when you pressurize a suit for the first time and it's cracking and popping and straining on the bench, you kind of turn away expecting something to let go. The biggest mistake I see is not pressurizing the suit."

"The other one is lights inside the helmet," he added. "That makes me crazy. Ridley Scott in 'Alien' is one of the first to do this. He's filming at night with cameras that are shooting film that couldn’t shoot in very low light, and you want to see actors in there. Since then, we’ve got digital cameras you can use by lighting a scene with a match. We do our best to keep the suits light, but like on our EMUs, it's Teflon fabric and it's so bloody heavy. The new 'Fantastic Four' movie has some interesting-looking suits. But you wouldn't have straps or shoulder things hanging out, because they’re going to get caught inside a spacecraft."

With so many spacesuits in his inventory, one wonders exactly what Hollywood designs Gilman favors.

"I probably like '2001' the best," he said. "I think the suits were quite iconic and handsome. I actually had in my possession a real one for about nine months, and we patterned it and made replicas. A friend of mine owns the original red Bowman’s helmet from '2001,' so we were going to make some replicas of that. I like the fact we got to use the Mark III suit in 'Deep Impact.' It was nice that the director went with that suit. We were working on 'Armageddon' at the same time, and it was funny being in the middle and looking at the two. A friend of mine said the physics in 'Armageddon' are only slightly more realistic than The Beatles' 'Yellow Submarine.' I love that."

When Neil Armstrong clambered down the Eagle's lander to take his "one giant leap" in 1969, it was captured by a black-and-white slow-scan television (SSTV) with a resolution of a mere 320 lines and 10 frames per second. The transmission, beamed back via NASA's Deep Space Network, was sketchy, plagued by ghosts and poor contrast. The available 900 to 1,000 kiloHertz bandwidth just wasn't sufficient to transmit in color. Things improved slightly with Apollo 12, which had a wider 2 to 3 megaHertz bandwidth that permitted color footage — at least until the video camera was accidentally pointed at the sun, the solar intensity damaging its vacuum tube.

Soon, NASA's Artemis crewed moon missions will be flying with high-definition and ultra-high definition color cameras with frame rates of up to 60 per second. But even though the technology has dramatically improved since 1969, there remain many challenges for successfully documenting a lunar landing on video. Bandwidth continues to be one of these challenges, as does the 1.3-second signal delay from the moon, dealing with bright sunlight starkly reflecting off the lunar surface, and moon dust that seems to be able to find its way into every nook and cranny.

Therefore, taking detailed images and video footage of activities on the lunar surface and transmitting them back to Earth, all within the constraints of these challenges, is an acquired skill. We can't yet just pop to the moon to practice, so the next best thing is to simulate the environment of the moon somewhere on Earth.

Indeed, this is the purpose of the LUNA facility in Cologne, Germany, which is a joint project between ESA and the German Aerospace Center (known by its German acronym DLR). The idea is to create a lunar environment that is as realistic as possible for testing robotic landers, training astronauts and practicing with equipment — including, in this case, cameras.

To that end, imaging experts from the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS), which features representatives from 28 countries, have convened on LUNA to practice shooting astronauts playing make-believe in a simulated lunar environment.

Spending time at LUNA gave imaging expert Melanie Cowan, who is ESA's representative on the CCSDS' Motion Imagery and Applications Working Group team, "a glimpse of what it may be like on the moon," she said in a statement. "One cannot get any closer to the real thing. It was a special and challenging experience to film and photograph in this surreal environment."

Indeed, so realistic was this pretend moon that Cowan and fellow imaging experts had to wear protective clothing to prevent the simulated lunar dust from being breathed in, or getting in their hair or on their clothes. Dust could be a major problem for astronauts spending any appreciable time on the surface; it is so fine that it gets everywhere, sticking to surfaces and potentially clogging up equipment.

So, donned in their protective clothing reminiscent of the head-to-toe suits used in clean rooms, the imaging experts captured footage of astronauts descending from a mock lunar lander, exploring the surface and even taking a selfie — something that Neil Armstrong may have wished he'd had the opportunity to do. (There are famously few images of Armstrong on the moon, since he carried the Hasselblad camera during most of his and Buzz Aldrin's historic moonwalk.) The point behind taking the selfie was to see how much detail could be captured in the reflection on the visor of the astronaut's helmet.

The resulting images and video are intended to be used as reference files for the real thing, so that astronauts and imaging technicians can better understand what camera settings to use, and how large the resulting image or video files might be when transmitted.

"These efforts should help agencies and companies create a ground truth for video applications and equipment," said Falk Schiffner, who is the DLR representative in the CCSDS Motion Imagery and Applications Working Group. "The activities to refine video quality are not geared only to moon imagery, but to all space transmissions."

Capturing good footage on the moon is not as easy as on Earth. For one thing, because there is no appreciable atmosphere on the moon to scatter sunlight, the contrast between areas directly illuminated by the sun and areas in black shadow can lead to over-exposed daylight areas and totally black shadowed regions. And the slow rise and setting of the sun over a two-week period from any given location results in slowly changing conditions. To replicate all of this at the LUNA facility required a lot of trial and error with camera angles and lighting.

"We tried different sun simulators and techniques to replicate the lighting of the sun on the moon," said Cowan. "We investigated the effects of the shadows from the rocks and inside craters. Early tests revealed that HDR video will provide more detail in shadowed areas on the lunar surface."

HDR stands for "high dynamic range," which can drastically improve the contrast ratio of an image, or boost its colors. Camera manufacturer Nikon has already teamed up with NASA to develop modified Nikon Z9 cameras to be used by astronauts should they land on the moon as part of the eventual Artemis 3 mission. The Nikon Z9 possesses both HDR and UHD (ultra-high definition) capabilities that will be essential for use in the strange, stark lunar landscape.

Taking an 8K UHD video camera to the moon is one thing, but transmitting all that data back to Earth in a livestream (or as live as it can be with the 1.3-second delay) has limitations in the available bandwidth. In particular, footage containing lots of motion is referred to as an "encoder killer," as it bumps the data rate way up. In practice, data transmission from the moon will be compressed, just as it already is from the International Space Station, for example, but even then methods will have to be found to squeeze it all into the available bandwidth without losing too much data.

Help may soon be coming thanks to ESA's Moonlight initiative, which plans to launch a constellation of five satellites into orbit around the moon. Four of these spacecraft will assist future missions with navigation, and the other will provide high-data-rate communications between the lunar surface, spacecraft in lunar orbit or traveling to the moon, and ground stations on Earth. The intent is for Moonlight to be fully operational by 2030.

Gene Kranz, who served in Apollo mission control as "White Flight," was at the head of the room when Apollo 11 landed on the moon and Apollo 13 "had a problem." He may have never said "Failure is not an option," but his record of success has earned him a prestigious award.

What is it?

On May 15, 2025, Kranz received the 2024 American Astronautical Society (AAS) Lifetime Achievement Award for his "exemplary leadership and a 'must-never-fail' style that ensured historic mission successes, empowered human space exploration, saved lives and inspired individuals around the world."

Where is it?

Prior to a public celebration at Space Center Houston, Kranz revisited his former workplace — the now history Apollo mission control room at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. In this photo, he poses with his award at the restored console where once led flights to the moon.

Why is it amazing?

"Gene didn't just help put humans on the moon, he helped build the mindset that made missions possible. Forging ahead into the Artemis generation, we still see the lasting impact of Gene's leadership today," said Steve Koerner, acting director of the Johnson Space Center.

The AAS lifetime achievement award is only presented once every ten years. Previous honorees have been Werner von Braun (1964), William Pickering (1974), George Low (1984), Norm Augustine (1994), Pete Aldrige (2004) and Ed Stone (2014).

Want to learn more?

You can read about the role of NASA flight directors and another way that veterans of Houston mission control have been honored.

NASA's prototype for a lunar terrain vehicle (LTV) glows in this 2024 portrait.

What is it?

As NASA plans to return humans to the moon as part of the Artemis program, the space agency is looking at how to enable astronauts to work on the lunar surface at the south pole. Those efforts included the design of an unpressurized rover prototype, known as the ground test unit.

The eight-wheeled prototype was used to evaluate different rover concepts, leading up to and through the April 2024 selection of three companies — Intuitive Machines, Lunar Outpost and Venturi Astrolab — to supply lunar terrain vehicles (LTV).

“The Ground Test Unit [helps] NASA teams on the ground test and understand all aspects of rover operations on the lunar surface ahead of Artemis missions,” said Jeff Somers, engineering lead for the ground test unit in October 2024. “The GTU allows NASA to be a smart buyer, so we are able to test and evaluate rover operations while we work with the LTV contractors and their hardware.”

Where is it?

The Ground test Unit was designed, developed and tested at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. This photo was taken inside the West High Bay Tower of Johnson's Building 49.

Why is it amazing?

Well, don't take our word for it — photographers Bill Stafford and Helen Arase Vargas were awarded third place award for this portrait of the ground test unit as part of NASA Headquarters' 2024 Picture of the Year contest.

Want to learn more?

You can read more about NASA's needs for an unpressurized moon rover and the selection of U.S. companies to build lunar terrain vehicles (LTV).

In the penultimate episode of the second season, which premiered Sunday night (May 18) on HBO Max, the story briefly visits the Wyoming Museum of Science and History.

Warning: If you have not yet watched Season 2, Episode 6 of "The Last of Us," you may want to stop reading here, as there are minor spoilers ahead. If you have never seen the series or played the game, for the purposes of this article you only need to know that it is about Joel (Pedro Pascal), a hardened survivor of a global pandemic that has destroyed civilization, and Ellie (Bella Ramsey), a teenage girl who Joel has taken charge of and who may be humanity's last hope.

As part of the episode, Joel is shown surprising Ellie with a visit to the museum. Inside, they enter the space and astronomy hall to Ellie's delight (her interest in flight and what it represents — escape and being able to control her own destiny — is a recurring theme in both the game and the television adaptation).

The two find a working, floor-to-ceiling solar system orrery, historic spacesuits on display and, at the center of the main hall, an Apollo command module.

"Is it real?" asks Ellie, almost in a whisper.

"It is real," replies Joel. "That one went up and back, Apollo 15 in 1971."

After picking out a helmet to wear (the type worn by Gemini astronauts), Ellie climbs into the capsule, followed by Joel, who closes the hatch behind him. Ellie immediately starts flicking switches, making sound effects and calling out commands to accompany each click. Joel then surprises her with a tape cassette.

"Happy birthday, kiddo," he says. "This is something that took a mighty effort to find. Play it."

Ellie inserts the cassette into her Walkman and, following Joel's suggestion, closes her eyes as the audio begins to play.

"Thirty seconds and counting," says a man's voice. "The astronauts report it feels good. T-minus 25 seconds..."

What Ellie (and those watching the episode) are listening to is the actual audio of NASA public affairs officer Jack King counting down to the launch of Apollo 11, the first mission to land humans on the moon, on July 16, 1969.

As King continues to narrate, the sounds of the spacecraft come alive and the lights grow dim. At nine seconds and "ignition sequence start," Ellie starts to rattle side to side in her seat. The light from the engines igniting pours through the window, lighting up her face as she begins to shake more rapidly. "Liftoff, we have a liftoff, 32 minutes past the hour..."

The sound and motion of the launch are soon replaced by the serenity of what Ellie imagines it is like being in space. The light from the sun dances across her face until she slips back into reality with a wide smile.

End scene.

The real Apollo 15 command module, which its crew named "Endeavour," is on display today at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio, and, unlike the spacecraft in the show, it is exhibited without its interior control panels and equipment.

It also does not have vines growing all over it. Otherwise, the two might be twins. Well, almost.

"Interestingly, it was 110% of the real thing. We bumped it up just slightly [in size] for all sorts of reasons," said Don Macaulay, the production designer for this season of "The Last of Us," in an interview with collectSPACE.com. "We tried to stick pretty true to the game in terms of how we shot that and how it was lit. That is so much easier to do in a digital set than on a real set."

The scene in the series was directly inspired by a segment in "The Last of Us Part II," a game released for Sony's PlayStation 4 in 2020.

To achieve the desired look, Macaulay and his team began with a softball-sized, 3D-printed model of the command module that they used to work out what pieces they needed to be removable so they could insert cameras and lighting. They then advanced to a full-scale foam version, so they could test the lighting and views.

"And then, yeah, we built a complete interior and exterior," said Macaulay. "We shot them separately, but it was all one set. We took the module to a separate stage to shoot the interior, and then we brought it back to the museum to shoot the exterior of it, but it was all one set."

In addition to having the game, Macaulay also referenced the drawings and diagrams of the command module that NASA has posted online. He took the same care when recreating the orrery from the game, which worked just as shown. (He admitted, though, that he had to look up the word "orrery" when he first found out he had to build one; Macaulay has led the production for a number of science fiction projects ["Tomorrowland", "Star Trek Beyond"], but this was his first to be based on real space exploration and astronomy.)

The spacesuits were rented from a prop house. Macaulay wanted to mach the look of the game, so he also arranged for a full-scale lunar rover, a display of scale rockets and built a model of the moon, although only the latter made the final cut.

"It's one of those things where we provided a ton and then, just based on how it's shot and edited, some of it doesn't make it on screen. In fact, we built and shot an entire dinosaur exhibit [inside the museum] and it didn't make it into the show," he told collectSPACE.

The television series often veers far from what was seen in the game, which is why, Macaulay said, sets like the space museum were so important to get right.

"It's so iconic in the game that we do try to be fairly true to it. I mean, we can never take the [virtual] models they used in the game and just build from them. Their sets are usually way over scaled, and we build sets specifically for the action required. So getting the essence of the set is more important in this case," he said.

"There was the iconic image of [Joel and Ellie[ standing in front of the capsule, so, that was something — and the capsule itself — we tried to replicate as best we could," said Macaulay.

So that leads up to an obvious question: After all of that attention to detail and care to get the look just right, what becomes of a command module that was abandoned in the context of the show's (and game's) plot, and now is no longer needed in terms of the production of the show?

"We still have it," said Macaulay. "I don't know if there's a lot of demand, but someone could want it for their prop house, or maybe HBO Max will keep it for use on some other show down the line."

Follow collectSPACE.com on Facebook and on X at @collectSPACE. Copyright 2025 collectSPACE.com. All rights reserved.

Artist Paul Van Hoeydonck died on Saturday (May 3) at his home in Wijnegem, Antwerp in Belgium, according to a statement released by his family. He was 99.

"Paul went home peacefully this afternoon," read the note on his Facebook page.

On Aug. 2, 1971, as NASA's Apollo 15 astronauts wrapped up their third of three excursions out onto the lunar surface, the mission's commander David Scott placed a small aluminum figure and its accompanying plaque near where he had parked their lunar rover for the last time. Although Scott did not make mention of it while he was on the moon, he revealed the "Fallen Astronaut" statuette once he and his crewmates, Jim Irwin and Al Worden, were back on Earth.

"We left a small memorial on the moon about 20 feet north of [the lunar rover] in a small, subtle crater," said Scott. "There's a simple plaque with 14 names, and those are the names, in alphabetical order, of all of the astronauts and cosmonauts who have died in the pursuit of the exploration of space."

"Near it is a small figure representing a fallen astronaut," he added.

Three years earlier, Van Hoeydonck came up with the idea of the mini monument to celebrate "humanity rising into space." After making adjustments to the sculpture to meet NASA requirements and its purpose being recast as a tribute to the space explorers who made the ultimate sacrifice, Van Hoeydonck met with the Apollo 15 astronauts to hand over his creation a month before their launch.

"I didn't think it would ever happen. Of course I was interested in all this, but being an artist, who would have thought it possible of having one of my statuettes put on the moon?" said van Hoeydonck in a 2015 interview with the British Interplanetary Society's Spaceflight magazine.

Complying with NASA's requirement that the statue not be commercialized, Scott did not disclose the name of the artist. It was not until a replica of the "Fallen Astronaut" was requested and put on display at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. that Van Hoeydonck's role in the tribute first became public.

Van Hoeydonck's plans to sell replicas of his statuette were deferred after Scott and NASA expressed concerns over the exploitation of the memorial. (Van Hoeydonck, in partnership with the Breckner Gallery in Düsseldorf, Germany, recreated the artist's original 1969 idea for the statue and marketed a limited run of 1,971 signed and numbered pieces in 2019.)

In 2021, Scott rebuked Van Hoeydonck's involvement, writing in a memorandum that the "Fallen Astronaut" figurine that he left on the moon had been "fabricated by NASA personnel." He said that the design "was based on standard 'stick-figures' that had been universally accepted in the late 1960s as location symbols for bathrooms."

Scott wrote that before the mission there was "absolutely no contact or knowledge outside these limited NASA personnel regarding this project."

Whether of not Van Hoeydonck is properly credited with the "Fallen Astronaut" on the moon, his other space sculptures have been exhibited in Milan, Tokyo and at the Guggenheim in New York City. He was also the focus of the 2020 documentary "The Fallen Astronaut," about "a sculpture that died on its way to the moon."

Born on Oct. 8, 1925 in Antwerp, Belgium, Van Hoeydonck studied at the Institute of Art History in his home town and at the Institute of Art History and Archaeology in Brussels.

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The award-winning actor is set to star in the new podcast "BUZZ" about the life of one of the first humans to land on the moon. In the 11-episode scripted audio series debuting on May 6, Lithgow gives voice to the astronaut's thoughts as he reflects on his past.

"I want to tell you about my new fiction podcast," says Lithgow in a teaser released on Tuesday (April 29) by iHeartPodcasts and Thoroughbred Studios. "It's an audio thriller about Buzz Aldrin, one of the true pioneers of space."

On July 20, 1969, Aldrin and Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong achieved humanity's first landing on another celestial body, landing NASA's lunar module "Eagle" at Tranquility Base. Armstrong then took the first step onto the lunar surface, declaring, "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind."

"Those words would become cemented in our culture, but they weren't my words," says Lithgow as Aldrin in "BUZZ."

After Aldrin joined Armstrong on the surface, the two moonwalkers spent about two and a half hours collecting moon rocks, planting the American flag and deploying science experiments, all while becoming two of the most famous people alive at the time. They returned to Earth (together with command module pilot Michael Collins) as heroes and were celebrated as they toured around the world.

"That's the story you think you know. This is the story you don't," Lithgow says.

Written by Stephen Kronish ("24"), the series is described as a "riveting human drama" with Aldrin at its center, "examining the ups and downs of the Apollo 11 mission." As the podcast unfolds, listeners will hear Aldrin as he "faces his own frailties, overcomes demons he inherited through no fault of his own, repairs relationships and triumphs over addiction."

"And become a true hero — not because he conquers space, but because he conquers himself," says Lithgow.

In addition to Lithgow ("Conclave", "The Crown"), who portrays Aldrin today, "BUZZ" also features actor Geoffrey Arend ("Body of Proof," "Madam Secretary") as the astronaut at the time of the Apollo 11 mission.

"John Lithgow gives an extraordinary performance, taking us into the mind of Apollo 11's most enigmatic character, Buzz Aldrin, who came back to Earth to face an even greater challenge than going to the moon," said John Scott Dryden, director of "BUZZ," in a statement. "A story few of us know, 'Buzz' is an immersive space drama in audio that puts the listener at the heart of the action."

Although Aldrin, now 95, was not involved in this podcast, he has written and talked extensively about the personal challenges he faced before and after flying to the moon. He published four memoirs between 1973 and 2016, each providing insight into the pressure that he felt from his parents, his interactions with his fellow astronauts, his failed marriages and his recovery from alcoholism.

"BUZZ marks an exciting step forward in our partnership with Thoroughbred Studios to reimagine monumental moments in American history through top-tier talent and exceptional production," said Will Pearson, president of iHeartPodcasts.

"BUZZ" is produced and cast by Emma Hearn for Goldhawk Productions. It is executive produced by Jeremy Fox and Howard Stringer for Thoroughbred Studios, John Scott Dryden for Goldhawk Productions, Stephen Kronish and Jason English for iHeartPodcasts.

"'BUZZ' pays homage to the original trailblazers who risked their lives to go to the moon. This is a perfect start to our partnership with iHeart," said Bewkes.

Click through to collectSPACE to listen to an audio teaser for the new 'BUZZ" podcast from iHeartPodcasts and Thoroughbred Studios.

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Smylie, who was chief of NASA's crew systems division at the time, died on April 21, 2025, at the age of 95. His death came almost 55 years to the day after he and his team figured out how to combine a spacesuit hose, a sock, a plastic bag, cue cards and duct tape to clean the air for astronauts Jim Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert during their emergency trip back to Earth.

"I guess that was our 15 minutes of fame," said Smylie in a 1999 interview with a NASA historian. "If you read the book and look at the movie ["Apollo 13"], it sounds like I did all of that. I went back and looked at the list of people that I identified were involved, and there was probably 60 people involved in one way or another."

The concern was that the carbon dioxide being exhaled by the astronauts would reach high enough concentrations to be deadly if not cleaned from the air.

Related: Apollo 13: Facts about NASA's near-disaster moon mission

The Apollo spacecraft had two areas where the crew lived, and each was built by different contractors. Inside the command module, the carbon dioxide scrubber (or lithium hydroxide canister, as it was technically known) was cube-shaped. In the lunar module, which on Apollo 13 served as the crew's lifeboat, the scrubber was cylindrical.

Initially, Smylie thought that the solution could be as simple as continuing to run the scrubbers in the command module and run hoses to redirect their cleaned air exhaust into the lunar module. That would have worked, had the command module not needed to be shut down to reserve power for the reentry into the atmosphere (only the command module was designed to return to Earth intact).

After working with others to come up with the basic concept, Smylie and his team needed to make sure that it would work.

"I called both Downey and Kennedy [Space Center] and asked for some canisters to be sent so we could test that," said Smylie, referencing the location of North American Rockwell, NASA's contractor for the command module. "We found them at the Cape, chartered an airplane — Grumman [NASA's contractor for the lunar module] chartered an airplane, I guess, or North American did, and flew them up, and we had them that afternoon."

After learning that their makeshift fix worked as intended, they needed to come up with how to tell the Apollo 13 crew how to build the so-called "mail box" in space.

"We got hold of T.K.," said Smylie, referring to Thomas "Ken" Mattingly, who until three days before the mission had been assigned to fly with Lovell and Haise, but was grounded after he was exposed to the German measles. "T.K. was busy doing other things, and he assigned [fellow astronaut] Tony England to work with us on developing procedures to send up to the crew on how to build this thing."

Although the jury-rigged solution sounded complex, Smylie said that it was "pretty straightforward."

"Even though we got a lot of publicity for it and [President Richard] Nixon even mentioned our names, I always argued that that was because that was one [problem] you could understand. Nobody really understood the hard things they were doing. Everybody could understand a filter," he said.

Robert Edwin "Ed" Smylie was born on Dec. 25, 1929, on his grandparents' farm in Lincoln County, Mississippi. He served in the Navy before attending Mississippi State University, where he earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in mechanical engineering in 1952 and 1956, respectively. A year later, he received his master's in management from MIT.

He was hired as an engineer by the Douglas Aircraft Company (today, Boeing), working on the DC-8 jetliner, as well as how to air condition supersonic transports and keep thermal control for the Skybolt missile. He joined NASA in 1962 as the head of the life systems section and then head of the environmental control systems branch at the Manned Spacecraft Center (today, Johnson Space Center) in Houston.

For more than a decade beginning in 1962, Smylie served as assistant chief for Apollo support, acting chief and then chief of the crew systems division. In 1973, he moved to Washington, D.C., where at NASA Headquarters he was the deputy associate administrator for aeronautics and space technology, followed by acting associate administrator and then associate administrator for space tracking and data systems.

Smylie concluded his 18 years with NASA as deputy director and acting director of the agency's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. After leaving NASA, Smylie held executive positions with RCA, General Electric, Grumman and the Mitre Corporation.

For his service to the space program, and in particular his role in saving the Apollo 13 crew, Smylie was a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom and GlobalSpec's Great Moments in Engineering Award. He was also presented with the NASA exceptional service medal, distinguished service medal and outstanding leadership medal.

Smylie was preceded in death by his wife of 41 years, Carolyn, his brother John, a stepson and his former wife, June. He is survived by three children, Carolyn's two children, 12 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren.

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NASA's Orion test article was exposed to launch abort-level acoustics prior to testing its forward bay cover's ability to jettison at the Neil Armstrong Test Facility in Sandusky, Ohio. The cover is the last component of the spacecraft that must eject before parachutes deploy to ensure a safe landing.

What is it?

Although the setting might look like something out of a Mary Shelley novel or a noir film, it is actually a key test of NASA's next-generation space capsule in a state-of-the-art facility.

Engineers and technicians from NASA and Lockheed Martin subjected the Orion environmental test article to the extreme conditions Orion may experience in a launch abort scenario, including the jettison of its forward bay cover, the last component that must eject before the parachutes deploy for a safe landing.

Where is it?

The November 2024 test took place at the Space Environments Complex (SEC) at NASA's Neil A. Armstrong Test Facility (previously Plum Brook) in Sandusky, Ohio.

The SEC houses the world’s largest and most powerful space environment simulation facilities. The Reverberant Acoustic Test Facility (RATF), seen here, is the world’s most powerful spacecraft acoustic test chamber.

Why is it amazing?

Before this Orion capsule entered tests in support of the Artemis 2 mission — the first planned flight to return astronauts to the moon since the Apollo program — and before it became an environmental test article, it flew to the moon and back as the Artemis 1 mission Orion crew module.

Further, testing Orion at such high acoustic levels was a major milestone for the Artemis program.

"These tests are absolutely critical, because we have to complete all of these tests to say the spacecraft design is safe and we’re ready to fly a crew for the first time on Artemis 2," said Michael See, ETA vehicle manager, Orion Program. "This is the first time we’ve been able to test a spacecraft on the ground in such an extreme abort-level acoustic environment."

Want to know more?

You can watch a video of the forward bay cover jettison test and read more about the trials at the Space Environments Complex. You can also read more about the Artemis 2 mission.

The 18-karat gold Omega Speedmaster that was presented to Neil Armstrong four months after he became the first person to walk on the moon in 1969, sold for a hammer price of $1.7 million on Thursday (April 17). With the auction house's fees included, the total price for the chronograph was $2,187,500 — $280,546.25 more than the previous record set in 2022 by a nearly-identical gold Speedmaster gifted to Mercury, Gemini and Apollo astronaut Walter "Wally" Schirra.

The Armstrong watch also commanded the third most-ever paid for a space-related artifact, exceeded only by a Soviet-era Vostok 3KA-2 space capsule that sold for $2,882,500 in 2011 and the jacket that Armstrong's crewmate, Buzz Aldrin, wore aboard the Apollo 11 spacecraft, which went for $2,772,500 in 2022.

"This watch, which my father liked to wear on special occasions, symbolizes one of the most remarkable achievements in the history of mankind," said Mark Armstrong, son of the late astronaut, in a statement released by RR Auction of Boston, Massachusetts.

Related: Neil Armstrong: First man on the moon

Half of the hammer price, or $850,000, will be donated to charitable causes Neil Armstrong believed in, as identified by his son. The unnamed consignor who placed the watch up for sale with RR Auction has also pledged a portion of the hammer price to the Wisconsin-based Brian LaViolette Scholarship Foundation, which helps shape future generations through scholarships that honor character and service.

"A substantial portion of the proceeds from the sale will [further] the impact that [my father] and many other Americans made to humanity more than half a century ago," said Mark Armstrong.

Like all of the astronauts who flew Gemini and Apollo missions, NASA issued Armstrong with an Omega Speedmaster Professional chronograph as part of his flight equipment. As the commander of the Apollo 11 mission, Armstrong left his Speedmaster inside the lunar module "Eagle" as a backup to a broken timer, leading to Aldrin becoming the first person to wear a watch on the lunar surface.

The NASA-issued Speedmasters were not intended as gifts and, ultimately, the space agency transferred them to the Smithsonian, where Armstrong's flown-to-the-moon chronograph is now on display at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

As a commemorative and a replacement, Omega created a set of 26 solid yellow gold Speedmaster Professional wristwatches, which were presented to Armstrong, Aldrin and their Apollo 11 crewmate Michael Collins, as well as other astronauts who had flown into space at the time, at a gala dinner hosted by the Hotel Warwick in Houston on Nov. 25, 1969.

Each of the "Tribute to Astronauts" timepieces was engraved on its back with the recipient's name and missions, a number relative to when he flew into space and a quote: "To mark man's conquest of space with time, through time, on time."

Armstrong was issued watch number 17. Numbers "1" and "2" were reserved for President Richard Nixon and Vice President Spiro T. Agnew, respectively. Omega later made more "Tribute" watches for Apollo 14 through Apollo 17 crews, as well as sold 976 pieces to the public (the retail version replaced the personalized info on the caseback with the phase, "the first watch worn on the moon").

Thursday's auction was held at the Royal Sonesta Boston Hotel in Cambridge, Massachusetts, after eliciting 20 bids totaling $1,366,694 on RR Auction's website since March 24.

"Hammer's down at $1.7 million," said the auctioneer to a round of applause. "Ladies and gentlemen, friends, thank you, thank you, thank you for being here and being a part of history at $1.7 million."

The winning bidder was not identified.

The Armstrong watch was part of RR Auction's semi-annual space-themed sale, which included another astronaut's gold Omega Speedmaster. The chronograph gifted to the late Apollo 14 lunar module pilot Edgar Mitchell sold for $142,663.75 with the 25% buyer's premium.

Other "Tribute to the Astronauts" gold Speedmasters have sold over the last five years for $150,000 to $375,000 at auction. The wristwatch presented to Apollo 11 command module pilot Michael Collins commanded $765,000 in 2022.

Among the larger category of space artifacts and memorabilia, the Armstrong watch now sits between Aldrin's flown Apollo 11 inflight coverall jacket and the personal Rolex GMT-Master chronometer that Mitchell flew aboard Apollo 14, which sold for $2,163,199 in 2024.

Other examples of seven-figure sales have included a protective pouch that held the bagged, first lunar sample collected by Armstrong ($1,812,500 in 2017); the Soyuz TM-10 descent module ($1,652,500 in 1993); and a prototype Bulova chronograph that became the second type of wristwatch worn on the moon during the Apollo 15 mission in 1971 ($1,625,000 in 2015).

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The Science Museum in London has announced it is closing its "Exploring Space" gallery, which for almost 40 years has shown tens of millions of people how "humanity has ventured into orbit, traveled to the moon and explored the solar system and beyond." The gallery is undergoing a four-month phased shutdown, as its contents join other artifacts in the museum's new "Space" gallery, opening later this year.

"Space ignites an interest in science and technology in many people, including me," Libby Jackson, former head of space exploration for the UK Space Agency and newly named head of space at the Science Museum, said in a statement. "The Science Museum's space gallery has been a touchstone through my life, from my earliest visits as a child and lunch breaks as an Imperial College student to celebrating Tim Peake's launch with thousands of school children and family visits."

The public has until April 22 to see the Exploring Space gallery before parts of it are taken off display. Already, the Sokol spacesuit worn by the first British citizen to fly into space, Helen Sharman, has been removed to undergo conservation work ahead of its display in the new Space gallery. Sharman wore the garment for her 1991 mission to the Soviet/Russian space station Mir.

The Soyuz TMA-19M spacecraft that returned U.K. astronaut Tim Peake from the International Space Station in 2016 and a surviving example of the British-built and -launched Black Arrow rocket are also leaving exhibit, as are displays of a U.S. Scout rocket; an RL-10 rocket engine, which helped to send spacecraft to every planet in the solar system; and a J-2 rocket engine like the type that powered the upper stages of the Apollo Saturn V moon rocket.

From April 23 until June 2, visitors will still able to view examples of space food and a microgravity toilet, a suspended model of the Hubble Space Telescope and full-size replicas of the U.K.'s Beagle 2 Mars lander, the European Space Agency's (ESA) Huygens Titan lander and NASA's Apollo 11 lunar module "Eagle," which delivered astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the lunar surface in 1969.

Space artifacts elsewhere in the museum include a full-size telecommunications satellite, Eurostar 3000; one of the first GPS receivers; a Raspberry Pi computer that was used on the International Space Station; a satellite-based scientific instrument that precisely measures sea surface temperatures; and several scale models of satellites and spacecraft.

After the Exploring Space gallery closes, the museum's most famous space object, the Apollo 10 command module that flew on a dress rehearsal for the first lunar landing, will be carefully moved to the West Hall for its display in the new Space gallery. On loan from the Smithsonian, the spacecraft carried astronauts Thomas Stafford, John Young and Eugene Cernan on an eight-day journey that did everything but touch down on the moon.

In its new exhibit opening in the fall, the Apollo 10 command module, named "Charlie Brown," will be positioned next to the Soyuz TMA-19M capsule, offering a rare opportunity to see U.S. and Russian crewed spacecraft side by side.

The Space gallery will also exhibit a full-size testing model of BepiColombo, a spacecraft that launched in 2018 and will arrive at planet Mercury next year as part of an ESA and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) joint mission. Visitors will also be able to see Magdrive propulsion systems that enable small satellite to move while in orbit; a prototype Space Forge heat shield, which protects materials manufactured in orbit as they are returned to Earth; and a Spire LEMUR2 nano-satellite used to provide weather information to climate scientists.

According to its leadership, the Science Museum Group intends to make "significant additions" to its space collection over the course of the next five years to ensure that international efforts in space exploration are better represented in its holdings and in future displays in the museum.

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And it was a turn in the life of Eugene Cernan as retold in the 2014 documentary "Last Man on the Moon," directed by Mark Craig.

"We covered a little bit of Apollo 1 in that film because Gene Cernan and the Chaffees were next-door neighbors, and Gene looked after Martha and the family for a while afterwards, so it was relevant. But Martha said so much more than we could use in that film, and I was thinking, 'My god, I've never heard this before. You know, there's a story to be told, if the families are up for doing it,'" said Craig in an interview with collectSPACE.com.

On Saturday (March 15), the Boulder International Film Festival hosted the world premiere of "Apollo 1," Craig's new feature-length documentary about the three NASA astronauts who were killed on Jan. 27, 1967, when a fire tore through their spacecraft during a pre-flight test on the launch pad.

"Nobody's ever fully told their story, and it should be told," said Craig. "NASA was okay with it now, but the families [of the fallen astronauts] were the most important people to have in the film."

Related: Apollo 1: The fatal fire

It took a couple of years, but Craig eventually arranged for the participation of at least one family member of each of the three Apollo 1 crewmates. Martha and her daughter, Sheryl, share stories of Roger Chaffee, the rookie astronaut assigned to the mission. Lowell Grissom speaks about his brother, Mercury astronaut Virgil "Gus" Grissom, who was commander of Apollo 1. And Ed White III and his sister Bonnie recall their father, who two years prior to the fire became the first American to conduct a spacewalk.

"You have to appreciate that, for a lot of people, any trauma like that, irrespective of whether it's related to spaceflight, it lives with you for the rest of your life. It's a very traumatic moment that I was asking people to revisit and to share, and that was a big thing," said Craig.

The film also features astronaut Rusty Schweickart, who before helping to test the Apollo lunar module in Earth orbit was backup to Chaffee on the Apollo 1 crew.

"In addition to the families, for me, the big catch was Rusty, because as one of the guys on the backup crew, he could bring to the film something that nobody else could. And he obviously did," said Craig.

While the documentary does spend time on the fire itself, including playing back the last audio recorded of the crew, a large portion of the film is dedicated to the astronauts' lives prior to the tragedy.

"It's not an investigative documentary, unpacking all that happened. I think that is already out there," Craig told collectSPACE. "It was important to me to portray how these three men lived, not just how they died."

In the process, Craig sought out footage that had not been seen by the public in decades. In one instance, he came across photos of White delivering a speech at the Alamo after his history-making Gemini 4 spacewalk in 1965.

"And I thought, somewhere, there's got to be some footage. So I dispatched our archive researcher," said Craig. "To his credit, he found it, but it was still on a roll of film. It had never been transferred or digitized to the kind of media we need now."

"I was really glad to find it, though, because I really wanted the audience to understand just how famous these guys were. And I think at that time, Ed White must have been one of the most famous people on planet Earth. You know, that spacewalk was a hell of a thing," Craig said.

Another discovery involved the retreat that the Apollo 1 prime and backup crews went on to work out the procedures for the flight.

"When Rusty hit us with that one, I literally fell out of my chair," said Craig. "And if you don't mind, I'd rather not even mention it here, because I want it to be a surprise for the audience when they hear it."

Related: Ed White: The 1st American to walk in space

Ultimately, the greatest shock may be how many of those who see "Apollo 1" knew of the astronauts and the tragedy before watching, said Craig.

"I was really surprised to find that there was this lack of knowledge, not just about Apollo 1, but the space program in general. Projects like this film now have to serve younger audiences who weren't around then and who don't know this stuff," he said. "I want people to really understand that [the race to the moon] was a huge undertaking in a really compressed time period, an unwieldy infrastructure without the benefit of emails and internet and all of the stuff we take for granted."

"It's still mind-boggling what was achieved in that time, but the nature of how it was then was a contributing factor in the accident," said Craig. "It was a tragedy, but without Apollo 1, we wouldn't have learned all of the things that we needed to get to the moon."

"Apollo 1," produced by Stopwatch Productions, 7T1 Films and Haviland Digital, will next be shown at the Sonoma International Film Festival in Sonoma, California on Thursday (March 20) and Saturday (March 22). Director Mark Craig will speak at at both screenings and be joined by astronaut Rusty Schweickart at the Saturday showing. "Apollo 1" is also still available to stream online through the Boulder International Film Festival beginning Monday (March 17) to March 28..

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The other — well, it is probably best to hear it straight from him.

"Forgive my language, but someone's going to get knocked up," said Hanks, to a roar of laughter.

The "Apollo 13" actor and in this case, co-writer and narrator, was at Space Center Houston on Monday (March 10) for an invite-only screening of his new immersive film, "The Moonwalkers: A Journey with Tom Hanks." Among the 500 people who attended were three of the four members of NASA's Artemis 2 crew, Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, who are slated to be the next people to fly to the moon and who have a part in the film, and Apollo 16 astronaut Charlie Duke, who walked on its surface in 1972.

"As I was watching that [film], there were a couple things I thought of, and it was not about procreation on the moon," said Wiseman, still laughing. Hanks' suggestion seemed to catch all three Artemis astronauts off guard.

Related: NASA's Artemis program: Everything you need to know

"I'm not saying it should be in the flight plan!" rebutted Hanks. He then lowered his tone to take on the voice of Mission Control. "Okay, we notice what is on the flight plan scheduled for now for the next 45 minutes is going to be. If you could just lower the shades on the lunar module, and do you have some Mantovani records or can we put on some Adele?"

Hanks continued, "We are now going to enter the LOS [loss of signal] phase. We'll be right back in about 45 minutes because, according to the scientists — we have an experiment that we've done here at the Johnson Space Center — that's about how long it should take you."

"Crew selection for that mission is going to be very, very, very important," Hanks said, wrapping up the bit. "A lot of compatibility tests — if you want to join the astronaut corps. just keep swiping left."

"I'm done," replied Wiseman, dropping his mic with a wide smile.

"The Moonwalkers" envelops viewers in the story of the past and present missions to explore our nearest celestial neighbor. At Space Center Houston, the film extends beyond the edges of the theater's five-story-tall screen to spill out onto the walls and floor. In London, at 59 Studio's Lightroom, it is a complete 360-degree experience.

It was at Lightroom for an earlier 59 Studio production that Hanks got the idea you could use the same format to take people to the lunar surface.

"I said, 'This is about as close as a human being could get to to walking on the moon, if you guys thought that way,'" said Hanks, recounting how he first became involved. "And they said, 'Well, we are. Would you like to start working on it right now with us?'"

From there, the conversation expanded, eventually pairing Hanks with space documentary maker Chris Riley as they decided on the direction they wanted to take with the film.

"I think we all know that the vast majority of humanity thinks that Neil [Armstrong] and Buzz [Aldrin] walked on the moon and that was it," said Hanks. "The TV audience for Charlie [Duke] walking on the moon was a fraction of what the audience was for [Apollo 11]. Not for me — for me, any time a human being was out there walking around [I was watching]."

"So the mission statement that we had was, find the stuff that will still blow your mind, that you didn't know, the images that you did not see," he said.

Related: Tom Hanks bringing 'The Moonwalkers' to Houston for US premiere in 2025

For example, Hanks asked Duke, "Did you ever fall down? Did you ever trip?"

"At the end of our stay, we were going to do the 'Moon Olympics,' and we decided to do the high jump and the far jump," recalled Duke. "So we started out, and John [Young] started to bounce, and I was bouncing, and when I jumped, I straightened up and when I did my CG [center of gravity] went backwards and over I went."

"If I had fear anytime during the mission, it was then, but fear is not a bad emotion if you don't panic," he said.

Quickly assessing his situation while still in mid-fall, Duke rolled right and landed on his side. He then bounced onto his back.

"First off, what hit me — 'I'm still alive.' And so John came over and looked down at me and said, 'That wasn't very smart.' He helped me up, but the TV camera had been pointed right at me. They [Mission Control] were really, really upset, so that ended the Moon Olympics," Duke said.

Hanks said that if there was any emotion he wanted audiences to take away from watching "The Moonwalkers," it would be a sense of curiosity — especially those who see the film who are only visiting Houston.

"Particularly in this town, you preach to the choir," said Hanks, again being met with laughter by the mostly Houstonian audience present to see the film. "It is to get those other folks to say, 'Well, what ain't up there?'"

Related: The Apollo Program: How NASA sent astronauts to the moon

"Every time I hear that ["We choose to go to the moon"] speech of [President John F.] Kennedy, he said every time we become knowledgeable, we become aware of how much we don't know. So we got to go up there and and find out what else is there," he said.

Glover felt similarly after watching "The Moonwalkers."

"I leaned over to Christina while President Kennedy was giving the speech and I said, 'We don't talk like that anymore.' So I hope that we're reminded — but not just to go back [to the moon] to put info into the encyclopedias — but reminded of what we can do, right?" he said.

"We may see some things [at the moon] lit up in a day that a human has never laid eyes on. That's amazing," said Glover. "But what's more amazing is to come back and just talk to people about that. That can change the way. That's what was really resonating with me, watching it here today."

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That is what happens now with the premiere of "The Moonwalkers: A Journey with Tom Hanks."

Marking not only its debut at the visitor center for NASA's Johnson Space Center, but also its first time being shown in the United States, "The Moonwalkers" is a 50-minute-long immersive experience that envelops viewers in NASA's historic Apollo moon landings, as well the agency's current plans to return astronauts to the lunar surface after more than 50 years.

"We are deeply honored to be the first venue in the Americas to host the premiere of 'The Moonwalkers,'" said William Harris, president and CEO of Space Center Houston, at a preview screening on Thursday (Feb. 13). "This amazing, immersive experience documents the U.S. space program with NASA from Apollo through the Artemis program."

"This film will become available to the public [Feb. 14], and it will be shown hourly as part of the general admission here at Space Center Houston," said Harris.

Related: Tom Hanks bringing 'The Moonwalkers' to Houston for US premiere in 2025

'A Journey'

"The Moonwalkers," which since December 2023, has been playing at 59 Studio's Lightroom in London, combines projection technology, archival media, a well-crafted script and an original score to bring viewers on a journey through space and time.

"There are times when I've seen it and I'm thinking, 'Why is the hair standing up on the back of my neck right now?' Hanks, who narrates the film, as well as co-wrote it with writer-director Chris Riley, said in a "making-of" video released online by 59 Studio. "You can't just say because it is the words that you're hearing. You can't just say it is only the image. And you can't just say is this phenomenal score. It is that playing of it all together."

Beyond its multiple-screen presentation, what separates "The Moonwalkers" from past Apollo and space documentaries are its visuals. Complementing NASA's archival footage are the photos taken by the astronauts, which recently have been remastered to produce stunning new clarity.

"One of the key things that made this project work so well was Andy Saunders' incredible book ['Apollo Remastered']," said Lysander Ashton, who with Nick Corrigan co-directed "The Moonwalkers" for 59 Studio. "He set himself this incredible, gargantuan task of remastering from the original negatives a huge collection of the photography from the Apollo missions and brought out so much detail that had never been seen before. So it is a lot of this still photography that fills the background of the show."

The soundtrack was equally critical to conveying that this show was something the audience was not just watching, but experiencing together. Hanks, as narrator, represents each viewer, while archival NASA audio and an original score by Anne Nikitin recorded by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at London's Abbey Road Studios fills the theater.

"Ultimately, the most important thing of this whole project was take audiences on an emotional journey and to make them appreciate and feel the awe of this epic journey that when it first started seemed to be totally impossible," said Ashton.

Related: Apollo 11: The 1st crewed moon landing

Modifying 'The Moonwalkers'

The original production of "The Moonwalkers" was designed by 59 Studio to specifically fit the space at Lightroom and had the audience sitting on or near the floor, looking up. At Space Center Houston, the audience can be seated in the middle of the projections. As such, re-staging "The Moonwalkers" at Space Center Houston was not as simple as just sending over the same digital projection files.

"Our side walls are not smooth, they are faceted. There are six different facets," said Jeffrey Wyatt, Space Center Houston's chief experience officer, in an interview with collectSPACE.com. "The team at 59 Studio was able to make the projections work, such that the breaks in content made sense. We don't have any areas where the content is lost."

"They did a really good job of remapping the projections for our unique space," said Wyatt.

Space Center Houston also installed more projectors — seven in total — and covered the walls and floor with fabric and carpeting that more closely matched the tone of the giant screen.

"Originally, we were going to just project onto the black walls, but the contrast between the walls and the front screen, which is a very reflective silver, was too much. So we ended up covering the walls with fabric so that it preserves their audio properties, but also provides us a better projection surface," Wyatt told collectSPACE.

"We also added a lighter-color carpet at the base of the front screen so we can project onto the floor, giving us that full surface," he said.

The other major change was to the audio system, adding subwoofers.

"So when you are experiencing the Saturn V launch, you can really feel it in those moments," said Wyatt. "While the theater already had quite a good audio system, adding the additional low end really makes that difference with that moment."

"The Moonwalkers: A Journey with Tom Hanks" opened Friday (Feb. 14) in the Space Center Theater at Space Center Houston with daily screenings included with general admission. The show is also set to open concurrently at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. as part of the Earth to Space Festival, running March 28 to April 20

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Armstrong's note and the mission patch proposal that inspired it are up for auction in Goldberg Coins & Collectibles' Feb. 27 public sale in Los Angeles. The emblem art and first moonwalker's reply are part of the Clark C. McClelland collection, an archive of astronaut autographs, cscale rocket models and flown memorabilia from the estate of a NASA engineer who died in 2021.

"My father worked on hundreds of manned and unmanned U.S. missions during his 34 years with NASA at Cape Canaveral in Florida," said Carrie Lane, one of McClelland's daughters, in a statement released by Goldberg.

Though other items from the collection are estimated to sell for more, McClelland's attempts to help with designing an Apollo mission patch may be the most unique pieces in the sale. Goldberg has grouped the majority of the concepts into one lot, which they have appraised at $700 to $1200.

Related: Neil Armstrong: First man on the moon

"McClelland had a bit of an artist in him and submitted logo ideas to the various mission crews of Apollo and later the shuttle program," the auction catalog description for Lot 1017 reads. "McClelland submitted the most designs for Apollo 11 and Apollo 12, well over a dozen each."

There are also designs for Apollo 8, the first mission to send humans around the moon, Apollo 9 and the mid-flight explosion-plagued Apollo 13, as well as concept logos for rockets from when McClelland worked at the Martin Company (later Martin-Marietta and today Lockheed Martin).

One of McClelland's pencil drawings for Apollo 11 shows a circular patch with the astronaut symbol at its center flagged by the Mercury and Gemini program logos.

"This emblem shows recognition of each step [of the] national space program that has led to the Apollo 11's landing," McClelland wrote to the Apollo 11 crew in April 1969, three months before their launch.

Another full-color concept depicts an American flag planted on the moon at the center of a gumdrop-shaped emblem with the trajectory of the mission from Earth to the moon as the hand of god. The path itself appears to be filled with the lunar surface as seen from orbit and includes the Latin inscription, "Annuit Coeptis" ("Providence Favors Our Undertakings"), as borrowed from the Great Seal of the United States.

As Goldberg notes, McClelland's "designs were competing with so many others to win the favor of the various crews," and none of his Apollo ideas were accepted.

"We felt as though we wanted our own thoughts incorporated into the patch & have completed our design. I thought you might like your renditions back," wrote Armstrong before writing out his name (rather than adding his signature).

Separately, Armstrong inscribed one of his early NASA portraits to McClelland, "with appreciation for your ideas."

Similarly, Apollo 11 command module pilot Michael Collins, who is credited with coming up with the eagle-centric concept for the Apollo 11 insignia, extended his thanks on an autographed photo for McClelland's "help on the Apollo XI mission & emblem."

Both Armstrong's and Collins' signed photos, together with a third inscribed "with many thanks" by Buzz Aldrin, are included in the sale in another lot (1154), which is estimated to sell for $1,200 to $1,500.

The Apollo 11 astronauts collaborated with a different NASA employee, illustrator James Cooper, to develop Collins' drawings into a final design.

"We've been particularly pleased with the emblem of our flight, depicting the U.S. eagle bringing the universal symbol of peace from the Earth, from the planet Earth, to the moon, that symbol being the olive branch," said Aldrin in a broadcast from space during the moon mission.

Related: The moon: Everything you need to know about Earth's companion

One additional lot (1165, $400 to $600) provides a look at one more unsuccessful attempt by McClelland to design an Apollo patch. His Apollo 12 concept design uses the same shape and some of the elements from one of his rejected Apollo 11 emblems, but incorporates naval wings as a nod to the "all Navy crew."

The border of the patch artwork was signed by the Apollo 12 astronauts, Charles Conrad, Alan Bean and Dick Gordon.

Though he never saw any of his designs launch to the moon, McClelland did design (and have produced) a commemorative patch in memory of the fallen STS-51L space shuttle Challenger crew. Lot 1017 includes his original color marker rendering and a embroidered example of the 1986 emblem.

In total, Goldberg Coins & Collectibles' auction has more than 200 lots with memorabilia from some of the nearly 40 space missions that McClelland worked.

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Villagomez was gifted the ball by Alan Shepard, the first American astronaut to fly into space, fifth human to walk on the moon and the world's first (and to date, only) lunar golfer. Wrapping up his second of two moonwalks on NASA's 1971 Apollo 14 mission, Shepard took a swing at a couple of golf balls.

"I have a little white pellet that's familiar to millions of Americans. I'll drop it down. Unfortunately, the suit is so stiff, I can't do this with two hands, but I'm going to try a little sand-trap shot here," said Shepard 54 years ago today (Feb. 6).

Shepard had NASA's permission to carry out the "moon shot" so long as it met the agency's criteria, including that it be a non-commercial activity. To avoid any company from trying to profit from his one-sixth gravity drives, Shepard kept one key detail secret: the brand of the balls.

"I've never told anybody. I've never told my wife," Shepard once said, as quoted by Sports Illustrated.

Related: Alan Shepard: 1st American in space

Maybe Maxfli?

What Shepard did do was gift Villagomez — his friend and barber — a signed golf ball just after exiting quarantine following his return to Earth.

"He shook my hand and I felt something there, and he gave me a ball," Villagomez said in "The Barber, the Astronaut, and the Golf Ball" by filmmaker Jonathan Richards, based on the book of the same title by authors Barbara Radnofsky and Ed Supkis. "I wasn't going to say, 'Was this on the moon's surface?' I didn't want to put him on the spot like that."

"I figured I would ask him later, [but] I never asked him," said Villagomez.

Whether or not Shepard took a third ball to the moon and then gifted it to his barber without any provenance is the focus of the book and the film. But if he did, and assuming all three balls were of the same make, then Shepard flew Maxfli balls, a brand established in 1910 by the sports division of the Dunlop Tire and Rubber Corporation, currently owned by Dick's Sporting Goods.

Why Maxfli? Well, perhaps it was due to Shepard's sense of humor, suggests Radnofsky. Maxfli might have appealed to him given his hope that the balls would go for "miles and miles and miles," as he proclaimed on the moon. (In reality, his "maximum flight" was only about 40 yards [36.5 meters], as later measured using photos of the balls on the lunar surface.)

But then again, Villagomez's gift is not the only claim on a brand of ball.

Commemorative Moonball

Jack Harden, a Houston-local golf pro, helped Shepard create the makeshift club that was used on the moon by sawing off the head of a Wilson Staff Dyna-Power 6-iron and modifying it so that it could attach to the handle of a lunar sample collection device that was already on board the Apollo 14 lunar module. (Shepard donated the flown club to the United States Golf Association in 1974, and today it is on display in the USGA Golf Museum in Liberty Corner, New Jersey.)

Harden also reportedly gave Shepard a couple of two-piece Spalding-brand range balls that were customized with Harden's name ("Property of Jack Harden"), which then became the balls that the astronaut flew to and hit off the moon — at least according to Harden's son in an interview published in Sports Illustrated after Harden, Sr. died (the article, "Shooting for the Moon" by Jaime Diaz, was timed to Shepard's death in 1998).

Whether Spalding knew of Harden's gift or was taking advantage of the moment, the company offered a free "Commemorative Moonball" to customers who bought a dozen of its "Dot" balls. An ad said that the promo was "to celebrate Spalding's space flight as first golf ball on the moon" and that the Moonball was "an exclusive edition of the two-piece Spalding golf ball that landed on the moon."

Related: The moon: Everything you need to know about Earth's companion

Each of the so-called Moonballs was adorned with an illustration of an astronaut (presumably Shepard) playing golf on the moon and was also inscribed, "First Golf Ball On The Moon, Feb. 6, 1971."

Shepard was not amused. "We cut them off quickly," he said in a NASA interview soon before his death.

...give me your answer true

One possible issue with Harden's story impacts another separate claim, too.

In 2015, the Rogers Daisy Airgun Museum in Arkansas debuted an exhibit devoted to Shepard and his moon shot. Central to the display is a matted photo of the Apollo 14 crew that has been inscribed in part, "Our sincere thanks for the Daisy golf balls by Victor ... They are out of this world."

Although the Daisy Company is best known for its BB guns (hence the "airgun" museum), it did sell Daisy-branded golf balls when it was owned by the Victor Comptometer Corporation. The museum says it was Daisy balls that flew to the moon, based on the inscribed matte and the friendship that was shared between the company's senior public relations executive and NASA's director of public affairs in Houston at the time. The latter is said to have sourced the golf balls for Shepard to fly.

Both men have also since died, leaving only anecdotes, and then there is what Shepard, himself, said about the balls. "There were two golf balls, for which I paid — there was no expense to the taxpayer."

If Shepard bought the balls himself, that would seem to rule out their being gifted or acquired by others.

Back to the moon

Whether the balls were Maxfli, Spalding, Daisy or some other company's may only ever be answered if we can get eyes on the balls on the moon.

While the U.S., China, and other countries have plans to return astronauts to the lunar surface within this decade or the next, none are known to be targeting the Apollo 14 landing site, the Fra Mauro highlands, or areas nearby. Most of the renewed focus is on the lunar south pole, where water ice in permanently shadowed craters could become a resource for sustaining a base and producing rocket fuel.

Further, there are growing efforts to protect the human heritage sites on the moon from being disturbed. In 2021, the U.S. passed a law requiring domestic companies looking to send new missions to the moon to avoid the hardware and equipment left there by the Apollo missions. Likewise, NASA's Artemis Accords calls for its more than 50 (and still growing) party nations to protect historic human and robotic landing sites as one of its 10 principles.

Most recently, the moon was added to the World Monuments Watch, a list of locations spanning five continents — and now the lunar surface — that should be preserved for the history they represent.

Blind shot

Even if you could find a safe, non-intrusive way to get close enough to read the brand marks on Shepard's two golf balls on the moon, there may be nothing to see.

The two "little white pellets" were dropped into an environment that swings from 250 degrees Fahrenheit (121 degrees Celsius) in the daylight to minus 208 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 133 degrees Celsius) in the dark, and that is to say nothing about the exposure to radiation from the sun and cosmic rays.

"In time, the cover would turn brown and, with the cold of the lunar night, probably crack and fall off," said one manufacturer after testing golf balls in lunar conditions, according to Sports Illustrated. "[The ball's cores would] get hard and brittle" [and] "then they'd probably sit there forever in the vacuum."

Shepard acknowledged that the balls had probably "exploded by now," but despite that, desired a happier outcome.

"Perhaps the youngsters of today will go up and play golf with them," he said.

Click through to collectSPACE to watch the documentary "The Barber, the Astronaut, the Golf Ball."

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"We will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars," said Trump as part of his inaugural address on Jan. 20. That the newly sworn-in president did not also mention the moon raised some questions, given that it was during his first term in office that NASA was directed to refocus its efforts on landing astronauts there.

Some of Trump's current advisors, including SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, have expressed support for a direct to Mars approach. That said, Trump's choice for NASA Administrator, billionaire entrepreneur and private astronaut Jared Isaacman, said in response to his nomination that "Americans will walk on the moon and Mars" (his comments, though, preceded the president's address).

Whether the moon rock's removal had anything to do with Trump's plans for the future of U.S. human spaceflight is unknown. Photos show that an urn that was previously on display during Trump's first term has been returned to the bookshelf where the 0.7-pound (333-gram) lunar sample sat.

The rock may have been removed given its connection to the past administration, though a portrait of Benjamin Franklin added by President Joe Biden also as a nod to his focus on science remains).

"We loved seeing the moon rock in the Oval Office and we know that you asked to have it put in there," NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman said to Biden during a 2023 visit to the White House in Washington, DC. Wiseman is assigned to command NASA's Artemis II mission, which is planned as the first crewed flight to the moon since the end of the Apollo program.

"The closest I came to the moon was my moon rock here," said Biden while giving a tour of the Oval Office to Wiseman and his three crewmates. "Fifty years later, it's a big deal."

"I am so damn proud and envious of what you're about to do — really and truly," said Biden.

Biden was the second president to display a moon rock in the Oval Office. The first, Bill Clinton, requested that an Apollo 11 sample remain at the White House after it was brought there for a 30th anniversary commemoration of the first moon landing in 1999. It sat at the center of the room until he left office in January 2001.

"I put the moon rock on the table and for the next two years, when we had Republicans and Democrats in, or people on two sides of any issue, and they'd start really, really getting out of control, I'd say, 'Wait, wait, wait — you see that moon rock, it is 3.6 billion years old. Now we're all just passing through here and we don't have very much time, so let's just calm down and figure out what the right thing to do is.' And it worked every single time," said Clinton in a 2015 National Geographic interview.

Moon rocks have also made brief visits at the White House. During Trump's first term in office, a different Apollo 17 rock was on display for the 2017 signing of Space Policy Directive 1, which instructed NASA to send astronauts back to the moon and then on to Mars.

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Sixty-seven years after Sputnik, space is the great strategic frontier. Yet the U.S. faces growing competition from countries like China and Russia, both of which are targeting Western space assets with economy- and defense-crippling weapons. At the same time, the space economy is exploding as technological advances in reusability, avionics, and artificial intelligence increasingly put lunar resources within reach. Finally, there is geopolitics — the renewed lunar push, initiated under President Trump, is still seen as a geopolitical statement and a symbol of national prestige. The outcome of this lunar competition will have major ramifications today and well into the future.

The next Sputnik Moment will take place — just as it did in the 1950s — against the backdrop of great power competition. This time, the top contenders are the U.S. and China. The winner will not only claim bragging rights but will have first dibs on lunar resources, especially at the moon's south polar region, where safe, sunlit landing sites are scarce. Whoever gets there first will hold the winning hand in setting norms of behavior and rules of governance, which could limit who can access valuable resources for decades to come.

The United States' National Space Policy, released in December 2020, directed NASA to "land the next American man and the first American woman on the moon by 2024, followed by a sustained presence … by 2028." Four years later, both goals remain out of reach. NASA's first crewed lunar landing has slipped repeatedly, with no permanent presence planned for the foreseeable future. In contrast, Beijing has voiced plans to land Chinese "taikonauts" on the lunar surface before 2030 with the prospect of a heavy-lift launch vehicle, crew capsule, and lunar lander flight-ready as early as 2027.

Related: The US is now at risk of losing to China in the race to send people back to the moon’s surface

With so much at stake, Beijing will take great risks to land before the end of 2029, the 80th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC). As usual, China has taken inspiration — and pinched technology — from the United States, emulating the fast-and-expendable Apollo program design of the 1960s. The assistant to the director of the Chinese space agency, Ji Qiming, told China state television, "For now, the development of primary spacecrafts such as the Long March 10 rocket, Mengzhou crew spacecraft, Lanyue lander, and spacesuits are finished." If that's accurate, China leads the U.S. in the race for the next crewed lunar landing.

In contrast, NASA's timeline for the Artemis program is well behind schedule. Artemis 3, the first planned landing mission, had been slated for late 2025 but was recently postponed to no earlier than mid-2027. This date is supported by a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, stating that Artemis 3 is unlikely to land before 2027 due to the pace of lunar lander and spacesuit development. NASA's own internal analysis tagged an early 2028 landing — with an uninspiring 70% confidence level. In other words, there is a 70% chance that NASA's lunar suit and SpaceX's Human Landing System (HLS) will be ready by that date. However, it also means there is a one-in-three chance that critical technology won't be flight-ready till sometime later in 2028 or even 2029.

The China advantage

The contrasting commitment to deadlines is telling. While China single-mindedly pursues a focused and coherent lunar program fortified by a unified political structure, the U.S. lunar program is often swayed by political winds and is struggling to deliver key elements on time. Furthermore, Artemis is architecturally complex and faces regulatory delays. The Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) protracted and byzantine process for issuing Starship launch licenses to SpaceX, critical for Starship lunar lander development, is an example. Though recently improved, the licensing procedures still need streamlining to unleash American industry.

The upshot? The U.S. risks being caught flat-footed once again, as it was in the 1950s. Peter Garretson, co-director of the American Foreign Policy Council's (AFPC) Space Policy Initiative, likens the current situation to the classic fable "The Tortoise and the Hare," with America in the role of overconfident hare. The combination of America's delay and China's steady progress raises the specter that the next humans on the moon will not unfurl the Stars and Stripes. It is entirely possible that the first woman and "person of color" — NASA's stated priority for a first lunar crew — will speak Mandarin, not English. "China and its partners have marched forward, notching one success after another," writes Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA's former head of science. "There is no reason to believe they will not be first to send a crewed mission to the lunar south pole."

That prospect should set off alarm bells in Washington. A Chinese crewed landing ahead of the United States would — just as in the original Sputnik Moment — impact the perception of global leadership, thereby reshaping global power dynamics. "You can pretend this won't be a national humiliation," Philip Metzger, cofounder of NASA's Swamp Works, posted on Twitter/X, "but it will … be sold by the CCP as another demonstration of their success and the US's failure, resulting in PRC partnerships and treaties across South America and Africa."

Chinese boots on the moon would surely have wide geopolitical significance, including, critically, broader space governance. Besides reaping geopolitical rewards, China could use the prestige garnered by an early human landing to codify regulations by international bodies that would stymie space development, which the U.S. currently leads.

Related: China plans to build moon base at the lunar south pole by 2035

Maintaining leadership in space

In 2016, President Trump shifted NASA's priority from an improbable crewed flight to a small, captured asteroid to an ambitious mission returning astronauts to the moon — not merely to visit, but to stay and set up a permanent base as a first step toward a crewed landing on Mars. This remarkable public commitment has faced numerous delays and risks getting lost in history.

This is a singular moment in time, sparked by a bold commitment to advance American interests in space. The U.S. should not squander its hard-won technological lead by ceding dominion of cislunar space and the lunar surface to other parties. If we fail to follow through, such a moment may never occur again, and we will have de-facto ceded this new era of spaceflight to China.

Indeed, Beijing's lunar ambitions are more tangible than "flags and footprints." Unlike the United States, the PRC has embraced policies that make economic development a central rationale for spaceflight. The future is not merely a race to be "first" — as important as that is — but rather to exploit space resources and ignite economic growth. The moon itself has more land area than the continent of Africa, but the supply of prime lunar real estate is limited. Landing zones in the coveted south polar regions are strategically important. From these zones, robots and astronauts can access areas of near-constant sunlight for power generation as well as permanently shadowed regions with large reservoirs of valuable resources, including water ice. Lunar ice deposits are critical for making rocket fuel and breathable oxygen to jumpstart the cislunar economy and forge a path to Mars.

Both the United States and China are targeting some of the same sunlit zones, so landing first is critical. "We better watch out … It is not beyond the realm of possibility that they [China] say, 'Keep out, we're here, this is our territory,'" cautions former NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, who served under the Biden Administration. Unfortunately, this lunar contest would take place in a regulatory no man's land with few internationally agreed upon rules and standards of behavior.

Beijing, under the guise of "landing zones," "safety zones," or "research areas," could mount a lunar land grab with economic and geopolitical consequences. Denied access to these resources, NASA and Western enterprises would be squeezed by a lunar standoff as they try to advance their own business plans and resource claims. With moon-related enterprises hanging in the balance, jittery Western investors could turn bearish, fearing that a lunar dispute could undermine business prospects — and possibly spark a confrontation.

Related: Are we prepared for Chinese preeminence on the moon and Mars? (op-ed)

Unleashing American technology and initiative

American launch providers, especially SpaceX, and payload delivery companies, like Intuitive Machines, tower over global competitors … for now. Unleashing the synergy of public and private American space power can achieve extraordinary world-leading results in record time. However, American competitors face headwinds and regulatory hurdles that could trip them up in this lunar competition. The U.S. government needs to balance these private hard chargers with NASA's programs to speed a return to the moon by American astronauts and their international partners.

Elon Musk has declared that each launch of his Starship rocket requires "multiple fish licenses" in addition to lengthy FAA safety reviews. An open letter from his company, SpaceX, called out "patently absurd" regulatory delays. The FAA's snail's pace has also caught the eye of members of Congress, including Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), a senior authorizer and appropriator who oversees the space sector. These needless delays threaten to hobble Artemis as China paces ahead.

To avoid ceding ground and influence to China and Russia (here and on the moon), the new Trump Administration and Congress should immediately streamline and simplify launch licensing. Elevating the Office of Commercial Space Transportation from the FAA to report directly to the Secretary of Transportation would be a critical first step. "It should be led by a business-savvy professional appointed by and accountable to the president," says professor, author, and space policy expert Greg Autry. Clearing the regulatory and bureaucratic underbrush is the single most impactful and urgent step lawmakers can take to accelerate Artemis.

Currently, the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and crewed Orion capsule are the only available and funded technology to transport astronauts to the lunar neighborhood. However, both are costly and years behind schedule for a crewed launch. Some experts predict SLS will ultimately be replaced because of cost and delays, as reusable superheavy-lift vehicles like Starship and New Glenn come online. Instead of SLS/Orion, the human landing system configuration of SpaceX's Starship or possibly Blue Origin's Blue Moon spacecraft could carry astronauts from Earth to lunar orbit, refuel there, and then land on the lunar surface. There is no reason these human-rated vehicles could not transport crew from the Earth to the moon. Alternatively, a distributed architecture with separate launches of Falcon Heavy and/or New Glenn rockets could boost Orion and an upper stage into low Earth orbit (LEO), where they would dock and perform a translunar injection (TLI) burn. There is room for multiple providers — and the beneficial competition they bring — in this lunar quest.

That is a project for the longer term. For now, the fastest path to the moon is to augment the Artemis program with more power, more energy, and increased speed. As presumptive head of the National Space Council, Vice President J.D. Vance can inject a sense of urgency and energy to get American boots on the ground as soon as possible, and permanently inhabit the moon by 2030, through public-private partnerships. Forward-looking space-economic initiatives, including guaranteed purchase of propellant in orbit, subsidized mining of lunar and asteroid resources, and accelerated timelines, could be game changers. These programs could spur commercial space players to redouble their efforts to develop and monetize cislunar space and the lunar surface. This would spur competition, with SpaceX, Blue Origin, and the traditional aerospace giants vying for contracts at fair, fixed-fee pricing. That's a win for everyone.

Our place in history

Finally, there is the concept of the "Tide of History," or cultural zeitgeist. The original Sputnik Moment triggered an intense and energetic American response, culminating in the triumph of Apollo 11. But some worry about a "reverse Apollo moment." If China returns humans to the moon first, the U.S. could suffer the same global loss of face, the same loss of national pride, and a crippling loss of initiative, which could become an existential crisis for Western democracies as China reshapes the future of spaceflight and human civilization — in space and on Earth.

Resting on past laurels — especially in the new and high-profile frontier of space — is the surest way to lose the future. For a host of reasons — national security, geopolitics, economics, and cultural resonance — being the first to return humans to the moon matters. There is no medal for second place. The world is watching.

John Kross is the Senior Contributing Editor for Ad Astra magazine and a retired medical editor and writer. Rod Pyle is the Editor-in-Chief of Ad Astra magazine and author of "Space 2.0: How Private Spaceflight, a Resurgent NASA, and International Partners are Creating a New Space Age." They contributed this article to contributed the article to Space.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

The now 95-year-old astronaut, who in 1969 became one of the first humans to step foot on the lunar surface, appears in a new Verizon ad alongside Paul Marcarelli, the original "Can you hear me now?" Test Man to ask, "Can you text me now?"

"Fifty-six years ago, I was one of the select few that made it into space and the first team to help America conquer the moon," said Aldrin in a statement released by Verizon. "Back then, space was the great unknown, and now we've never been closer to it. I can't look up in the sky without seeing a satellite fly by. It's remarkable to see how far the human race — and technology — has come."

In the commercial, Aldrin is seen wearing a silver jacket adorned with the Apollo 11 mission patch while planting a Verizon "satellite powered" red and yellow flag at remote areas around Earth. At each stop, whether it be on the desert floor of a canyon, at the base of a snow-covered mountain or in an area of the wildness already marked as a "dead zone," the retired U.S. Air Force General and Doctor of Astronautics uses his Verizon-issued Android smartphone to show that he can still send texts.

Related: Buzz Aldrin: The second man on the moon

Aldrin's last test is shown as looping out around the moon — past an American flag planted on its surface — to a satellite in Earth orbit. There, a spacesuited Marcarelli (sans helmet) receives Aldrin's message and reacts, "That's my line."

"It's been 10 years since I last asked America 'Can you hear me now?' Back then dead zones were everywhere and it's safe to say today they are only in the most remote places like the dark [sic] side of the moon," said Marcarelli in Verizon's release, making the common mistake of describing the far side of the moon as the non-existent "dark" side. "Satellite is for sure the next frontier."

Verizon customers with "select new model phones with updated software" can send texts — such as emergency SOS messages, including their location — when they are in areas inside the United States without cellular coverage. According to the company, its U.S. network provides coverage to more than 99% of the places where people "live, work and play," but its satellite service now covers the "very few places" throughout the country where customers cannot connect.

For the service to work, the phones — which include Google's Pixel 9 series and Samsung's Galaxy S25 — must be outdoors with a line of sight to the Viasat, Echostar or other satellites that are part of the Skylo satellite connectivity service. The service may not work in parts of Alaska.

In addition, AST SpaceMobile, a satellite designer and manufacturer based in Midland, Texas, has a $100 million commitment from Verizon to provide direct-to-cellular satellite service when needed for Verizon's customers.

This week, the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) authorized AST to begin testing its service in the United States. This approval enables the first five of AST's commercial BlueBird satellites, already operating in low Earth orbit, to test connections with Verizon smartphones supporting voice, full data and video applications, as well as other native cellular capabilities, without the need of any specialized software or device support or update.

"That's one giant leap for connectivity," says Aldrin in the commercial.

AST SpaceMobile also has an agreement to provide space-based network services to AT&T and its customers. Similarly, T-Mobile partnered with SpaceX to use the Starlink broadband internet constellation and its direct-to-cell capabilities.

This is not Aldrin's first appearance in a commercial. Among his past spots are ads filmed for IBM and YouTube TV in 2019; a commercial for Quaker Oats in 2016; and a 2015 promotion to visit Switzerland.

In 1987, Aldrin joined Mercury astronauts Scott Carpenter and Gordon Cooper to advertise the Commodore Amiga 500 home computer and in 1972, a year after he left NASA, Aldrin helped sell the Volkswagen (VW) Beetle, comparing its computer diagnostics system to the computer he used to fly to the moon.

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The fresh season of "L.A. Made" launches on Jan. 29 with a wealth of never-before-told tales showcasing the lives of three forgotten Los Angeles heroes in the global contest to reach the moon. Produced in partnership with Reasonable Volume, "L.A. Made: The Other Moonshot" tells the poignant story of the talented persons of color whose vital aerospace work has largely been ignored by history.

Podcast host Joanne Higgins grew up hearing about the contributions of these black aerospace pioneers because her godfather, Charlie Cheathem, was a member of that vital group that labored on the Apollo 11 moon mission. Her determination now brings that glossed-over truth to light.

Here's the official synopsis from LAist, which is part of Southern California Public Radio:

"Higgins tells this story through first-hand accounts from her godfather, as well as his colleagues Nathaniel LeVert and Shelby Jacobs. Jacobs has since died. Levert and Cheathem are in their 90s and speaking to the media for the first time about their crucial contributions to the early days of the race to the moon that have been overlooked or taken credit for by others.

"Hired by North American Aviation for their skills and talent, Cheathem, LeVert and Jacobs were thrust into the uncertain and chaotic early Apollo missions, part of a team expected to solve the hardest engineering problems in human history. And as black men, they faced an additional gauntlet of racism: They had their work stolen. They were insulted and excluded regularly. And they had little support from their higher-ups. Each had to learn how to deal with the daily discrimination in his own way. Yet they stayed the course and were ultimately triumphant, driven by their love of engineering and passion for space travel."

Related: The Apollo Program: How NASA sent astronauts to the moon

"While developing the first season of our 'LA Made' podcast, 'Blood, Sweat & Rockets,' we separately learned about the previously untold experiences of the subjects of 'The Other Moonshot,'" said Shana Naomi Krochmal, LAist's vice president of podcasting.

"We also fell in love with host Joanne Higgins' voice and tenacity in bringing this story to an audience," Krochmal added. "The twin challenges at the center of 'The Other Moonshot' — to achieve an audacious and unprecedented scientific accomplishment while also pushing workplaces to take a great leap forward — are as relevant and complex to consider now as they were then."

This new four-part podcast will premiere Wednesday, Jan. 29 and be released weekly. Listeners can subscribe now and hear the trailer on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Episodes will also air on LAist 89.3 Monday, Feb. 17 through Thursday, Feb. 20 at 9 pm ET.

The World Monuments Fund announced today 25 new sites on their 2025 World Monuments Watch. The locations represent 29 countries across five continents … and now the moon. The lunar surface is the home of many artifacts from both robotic and human exploration of the moon, such as the Apollo 11 lunar landing site within the Sea of Tranquility, home of the first off-Earth footprints by humans planted there in 1969.

Listed are cultural heritage sites that face major challenges, from the celebrated city of Antakya, Türkiye, the Swahili Coast of Africa, the Chapel of the Sorbonne, France in Paris's Latin Quarter, the Buddhist grottoes of Maijishan and Yungang in China to the historic lighthouses of Maine in the United States.

The 2025 open call resulted in over 200 nominations that underwent extensive internal and external review before final selection by an independent panel of international heritage experts. The addition of the moon on the 2025 Watch is a step that advocates for international agreements and protections for lunar heritage sites.

Placing the moon on the list is intended to invite a broader public conversation on what a new Space Age might mean for the moon's cultural and natural landscape, the Fund explains.

Shared history

"For the first time, the moon is included on the Watch to reflect the urgent need to recognize and preserve the artifacts that testify to humanity's first steps beyond Earth — a defining moment in our shared history," observed World Monuments Fund's president and chief executive officer, Bénédicte de Montlaur.

Items such as the TV camera that broadcast to Earth the first human footsteps across the barren lunar landscape by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin; a memorial disk left by the Apollo 11 astronauts; and hundreds of other objects are emblematic of this legacy, de Montlaur said in a statement.

"Yet, they face mounting risks amidst accelerating lunar activities, undertaken without adequate preservation protocols," de Montlaur said. "The inclusion of the moon underscores the universal need for proactive and cooperative strategies to protect heritage — whether on Earth or beyond — that reflect and safeguard our collective narrative."

Lunar legacy

"We have an amazing and ever-expanding lunar legacy," said Beth O'Leary, professor emeriti of anthropology at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

"That legacy belongs to all humanity, from the first robotic spacecraft, Luna 2 put there by the former Soviet Union in 1959, to the first moonwalk by two American astronauts at Tranquility Base in 1969, to recent forays by several nations to the south polar regions of the moon," O'Leary told Space.com.

Indeed, the achievement by Apollo moonwalkers, said O'Leary, acknowledges the movement of our ancestors out of Africa more than 300,000 years ago and into the solar system.

Space archaeology

"On January 15, 2025 you should realize that it has been 20,269 days since two humans set foot on the lunar surface at Tranquility Base for the first time," O'Leary points out. "In that passage of almost 55 and one half years humanity has experienced great changes in the exploration and use of space."

O'Leary is a member of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), a non-governmental group dedicated to the conservation of the world's monuments and sites. The International Scientific Committee on Aerospace Heritage of ICOMOS wrote the nomination.

Working on issues of space archaeology and heritage for the last 25 years, O'Leary has tirelessly sought ways to preserve significant artifacts and sites on the moon.

International framework

"I am excited that the World Monuments Fund has chosen our nomination for the moon to place on its 2025 Watch," said O'Leary. "I see this action as part of the process for placing preservation into an international framework."

The Antarctic Treaty system of consensual approval for protecting sites was first created in the depths of the Cold War, O'Leary said, and demonstrates that nations can act together in remote places similar to the lunar surface.

"Cultural resources on the moon have been preserved by their remoteness, but are vulnerable to damage and destruction from increasing space activities, both national and commercial," O'Leary added. The World monument Watch, she said, calls for global cooperation to preserve the moon's cultural and scientific legacy.

With those words 50 years ago today (Jan. 15), Apollo 15 moonwalker Jim Irwin opened Space Mountain at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom in Florida. Later to be reproduced at other Disney theme parks, this was the original — the first roller coaster intended to give the public the same feeling that only astronauts had experienced up until then.

"Blast off on a rip-roaring rocket into the furthest reaches of outer space on this roller-coaster ride in the dark," reads the current description of Space Mountain on the Walt Disney World Resort website.

In 1975, however, the very idea for such a ride preceded the existence of the technology needed to build it. First proposed by Disney and sketched out by Imagineer John Hench in 1964, construction on Space Mountain did not begin until Dec. 15, 1972, just as the last Apollo astronauts to walk on the moon were on their way back to Earth. It was also six years after the death of Walt Disney.

Related: The Apollo Program: How NASA sent astronauts to the moon

"Walt had a dream," said Irwin just before thousands of doves were released, daytime fireworks were launched and 50,000 red, white and blue balloons climbed into the sky. "Today we see the results of that dream."

Looking at the ride today, while certainly still a thrill, it has little resemblance to actual spaceflight. But in the 50 years that Space Mountain has been running, there have been and still are several nods to NASA and real space exploration. Here are five such connections, from both behind the scenes and on the ride.

1. NASTRAN

Space Mountain was one of the first computer-controlled roller coasters. If the ride's "space shuttles" (or "rocket sleds") approached each other too closely, the computers slowed or stopped the vehicles.

But that's not the only way WED Enterprises (today, Walt Disney Imagineering Research and Development) used computers to ensure riders' safety.

When working on the design for the support structure for Space Mountain's dual tracks, the Imagineers needed it to be strong but not wastefully overbuilt. That is when they learned of the NASA Structural Analysis Program, or NASTRAN. An offshoot of the software used to design air and spacecraft, NASTRAN enabled the Imagineers to digitally model and test the ride track before building it.

"In this technique, engineers create a mathematical model of the aeronautical or space vehicle and 'fly' it on the ground by means of computer simulation. The technique enables them to study performance and structural behavior of a number of different designs before settling on the final configuration and proceeding with construction," wrote James Haggerty in "Spinoff 1977," an annual report put out by NASA about how its research and technologies are being put to use by industry and others outside of the space program.

2. From computers to outer space

In 1975, the RCA Corporation was working on the development of closed-circuit television and other various subsystems for NASA's then-upcoming space shuttle program. It was also the presenting sponsor for Space Mountain.

"Naturally, the basic purpose of Space Mountain from the company's standpoint is to give the public a vivid picture of what RCA is all about and what it has accomplished in such diverse areas of as space exploration, electronic communications and home entertainment," said Mort Gaffin, RCA's director for corporate identification and graphics and project manager for Space Mountain, in the February/March 1975 issue of the company's newsletter, "Communicate."

In fact, it may be because of RCA that Space Mountain launched the public on rockets and not motherboards. Initially, Imagineers Hench and Marty Sklar approached the company about sponsoring a ride that would take guests on a journey through a computer. It was only after RCA rejected that idea did Hench pick up on Disney's desire for a spaceflight experience, leading to RCA coming on board for $10 million.

On Space Mountain, riders saw astronauts working on an RCA-built Atmosphere Explorer Satellite and an orbiting laboratory being assembled remotely using TV systems furnished by RCA.

A tall pylon installed at the entrance to Space Mountain displayed the RCA logo at its top and included the only direct reference to NASA. A full-size ride vehicle was suspended from the monument, complete with four astronaut figures. The spacesuits each astronaut rider is wearing had the NASA insignia on its chest.

(RCA's sponsorship ran until 1993. The pylon was modified to show a three-seat vehicle in 1989, consistent with the change to the seating on the ride itself. Five years later, the pylon was removed and replaced with one of a different design.)

3. 'One Giant Step'

At the base of the RCA pylon was a metal plaque "presented by missile, space and range pioneers."

"Dedicated to the men and women whose skills, sacrifice, courage and teamwork opened the door to the exploration of man's exciting new frontier outer space. Because they dared to reach for the stars and the planets, man's knowledge of his universe, Earth and himself has been greatly enriched," read the plaque, which was titled "One Giant Step."

It was one of those astronauts, Irwin, who took the first "small step" (or "giant leap," depending on your perspective) onto Space Mountain on opening day, as the ride's first passenger.

"It's almost as rough as the ride on the Saturn V rocket," the Apollo 15 lunar module pilot said in an interview with RCA, referring to his ride to the moon.

Related: Saturn V: The mighty U.S. moon rocket

Joining Irwin at the ceremony were Mercury astronauts Scott Carpenter and Gordon Cooper. Carpenter had been the second American to orbit Earth in 1962; Cooper followed him as the last "original" astronaut to fly a year later and then commanded NASA's Gemini 5 mission in 1965.

In 1973, Cooper joined WED Enterprises to help develop Epcot and put the final touches on Space Mountain, the latter of which he said offered a "realistic feeling" of what it felt like to fly into space. He also recorded a video that guests saw when queuing up for the ride, explaining what they were about to go through and giving them the chance to exit should they change their mind.

4. Rocket to the Moon

Prior to Space Mountain, Disney's first space-themed attraction was "Rocket to the Moon." Located in California as part of Disneyland's Tomorrowland (and later reproduced as "Flight to the Moon" at Walt Disney World in Florida in 1971), the show was developed with NASA's assistance. The attraction was re-themed to "Mission to Mars" at both parks within months of Space Mountain opening at the Magic Kingdom in 1975.

There is now a reference to the since-closed Mission to Mars on a panel in Space Mountain's queue, but it is another sign and a different "rocket to the moon" that serves as a nod to real space history.

Earlier in the line for the ride, a backlit billboard lists "Active Lunar Stations" accessible from "Starport Seventy-Five" (the fictional setting for Space Mountain). In addition to science fiction and Disney-inspired names, the third entry reads, "TRNQ-ARMSTRONG Interplanetary."

If not obvious, this is a tribute to Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong, who was the first person to walk on the moon at Tranquility Base in 1969.

(In 2005, the real Armstrong helped re-open Space Mountain at Disneyland after it underwent two years of renovations.)

5. Space (Race) Mountain

The festivities marking the opening of Space Mountain was not the only time that real space travelers met at the fictional starport. Less than a month later, the attraction became the rendezvous point for two crews set to shake hands in orbit.

In 1975, the space race between the United States and Russia had all but come to a close (the moon's surface being the finish line), but the two countries were still Cold War rivals. So it was a big deal when astronauts and cosmonauts came together during the first joint American and Russian space mission in July 1975.

Five months before they launched into space, the five members of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) visited Walt Disney World, where they rode the newly debuted Space Mountain. The Feb. 9, 1975 visit by NASA astronauts Thomas Stafford, Vance Brand and Deke Slayton and Russian cosmonauts Alexei Leonov and Valery Kubasov was a chance for both crews to relax and generate some publicity before the Russians reported for their last training session in Houston.

Still laughing soon after getting off Space Mountain, Leonov described the ride as "a real nice integrated simulator" for their upcoming mission.

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By all accounts, whatever little remained after the fire was hauled off to a landfill in nearby Finglas, where it remains buried to this day.

Recently-released "confidential" documents from the National Archives of Ireland do not dispute or add additional detail to the outcome, but rather shed light on how the lunar display came to be at the observatory.

"This piece was given on Sept. 4 1973, on the advice of the Department of Education, to the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies for display at the Dunsink Observatory," reads a 1984 memo, as cited by PA Media, a UK-based multimedia news agency that distributed the news about the documents. "This piece of moon rock had lain in the basement of this department for three-and-a-half years due to indecision as to where it might best be displayed."

Originally presented to Ireland's then-President Eamon de Valera by American ambassador J.G. Moore in 1970, the Apollo 11 goodwill moon rock laid in limbo until 1973, when it was learned that the U.S. intended to gift the country with a second lunar sample, this one from Apollo 17, the sixth and last lunar landing in December 1972.

"It was thought that some embarrassment would be caused if the first piece was not already on display," the memo's authors wrote, explaining why the Apollo 11 gift was sent to Dunsink.

As for Ireland's piece of the Apollo 17 goodwill moon rock, it was initially placed on display in the drawing room of Aras an Uachtarain, the official residence and principal workplace of the president. Later, it was loaned to Aer Lingus so it could be featured in the airline's young scientist exhibition of 1976.

The Apollo 17 sample, which unlike the Apollo 11 display exhibited a 0.04-ounce (1.142-gram) stone that had been cut from a single rock and then mounted to a wooden plaque, was briefly planned to return to Aras an Uachtarain for permanent display but was ruled out given that the residence was only open to invited guests.

"The most appropriate museum collection in which it might be exhibited would be the geological or mineralogical collection — [but] the [National] Museum has no space to mount its geological exhibition and therefore the moon rock would have to be put into storage, which would not satisfy the requirements," read one of the documents.

Instead it was decided to transfer the Apollo 17 display to Aer Rianta, operator of the nation's major airports, for its public exhibition beginning in October 1975. That was only temporary, though, as eight years later the moon rock was returned to the government for display by the Geological Survey Office.

Today, Ireland's Apollo 17 goodwill moon rock display is on exhibit at the National Museum of Ireland, alongside a collection of meteorites, as well as plates from an Irish cosmic ray experiment that was carried to the moon on Apollo 16 and 17.

Ireland's Apollo 11 lunar sample was not the only display to be lost in a fire. A similar moon rock-topped podium presented to the people of Alaska was thought claimed by a 1973 fire in Anchorage until a ship's captain from a reality TV show revealed he was in possession of it 40 years later. Federal authorities intervened and the Apollo 11 sample was returned to display at the Alaska State Museum in Juneau in 2012.

The Apollo 11 and Apollo 17 lunar sample displays were the only pieces (an Apollo 12 moon rock display was gifted to China, the only known exception) of Apollo-collected moon rock to be released from U.S. property. The remainder of the 842 pounds (382 kg) of lunar material brought to Earth by the six NASA missions is considered a natural treasure, with samples being made available through loans for scientific study, museum display and educational outreach.

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Mesick's desire to have a piece of the Apollo 11 mission integrated into his ring stemmed, in part, from his work as a planning manager for Lockheed Martin. The aerospace company is one of the prime contractors for NASA's Artemis program, providing Orion, the spacecraft currently planned to return the first astronauts to the moon in more than 50 years.

Related: The Apollo Program: How NASA sent astronauts to the moon

The Mylar-like, flown-to-the-moon foil was acquired at an auction. The 9-inch (23 centimeters) piece traced back to the estate of an NASA production control engineer who headed the machine shop responsible for preparing artifacts for museum display and mementos for distribution to space agency officials, employees and others.

"It's a much larger piece than I needed for the ring, but I'm going to frame [the remainder] in my house. It's something I will always treasure," said Mesick in an interview with Denver 7, an ABC News affiliate.

Peeling back history

The Apollo 11 spacecraft was comprised of two vehicles: a command module named "Columbia" and the lunar module "Eagle." The earlier remained in lunar orbit with astronaut Michael Collins while Eagle landed at Tranquility Base with moonwalkers Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.

Columbia's exterior was covered in an aluminized laminate. The tape's outer layer was silver in color to reflect sunlight, while underneath was gold to expel radiation. Both helped regulate the command module's temperature on the trip from Earth to the moon and back.

When Columbia returned home, the intense heat generated during the reentry into the atmosphere resulted in some of the tape burning off. After splashing down in the ocean and being hoisted onto a ship to be carried back to shore, the peeling, gold film became an attractive and easy target for members of the recovery team to take as a souvenir.

"There have been several occasions in which unauthorized removal of equipment ... have included stripping of small pieces of the kapton thermal coating," wrote Jim McDivitt, an astronaut and Apollo Spacecraft Program Manager, in an October 1969 memo. "I would like to point out to all personnel concerned that this unauthorized removal of equipment, no matter how small it may seem, constitutes a violation of our responsibility."

Still, even once the command module reached its post-flight processing facility, technicians were instructed to remove large swaths of the tape to allow for the inspection of the underlying hardware. By the time Columbia was delivered to the Smithsonian in 1971, only very small traces of the reflective film remained.

'Will never exist again'

Honest Hands' manufacturing lead Haydn Coats began forming Mesick's ring by machining a zirconium band with a carved-out interior channel that he lined with pebbles from the moon.

Lunar rocks collected by the Apollo astronauts are considered a national treasure. No individual has ever been given one. There are other pieces of the moon, however, that fell to Earth as meteorites, and they can be legally bought and sold. The lunar meteorite in Mesick's ring was found in Algeria in 2022.

"Came here from the moon," said Coats, "just so we can crush it up and put it into this customer's ring."

Once the lunar meteorite gravel was secured in place, attention turned to carefully slicing off a strip of the Apollo 11 flown tape to be inlayed into the ring.

"It feels like something between aluminum foil and high-tech aluminum foil," said Coats. "It's super lightweight. There's nothing to it."

"It's all come down to this moment, preparing to cut a piece of NASA and American history," said Bosworth. "I think that's definitely the most valuable thing [we've] cut before."

Among the other rings that Honest Hands has made are bands incorporating a vinyl record, an arcade token and field dirt from a World Series baseball game.

"Customer rings are always stressful, but the fact that this was Apollo 11 space-flown Kapton that was won at auction, super valuable material that will never exist again, that's what makes this ring so special," said Bosworth.

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"I started thinking, could you recreate the DSKY at the scale of an Apple Watch?" said Mark Clayton, Apollo Instruments' CEO. An engineer with a lifelong passion for aviation and space, Clayton was working on miniaturized digital displays when he noticed that the vibrant green glow they emitted bore a striking resemblance to the iconic DSKY display.

Using original drawings from MIT, Clayton and his team, which includes two former Formula 1 engineers, set about scaling down the DSKY.

"We were pushing our manufacturing equipment to its limits, producing something so intricate and small," he said.

Related: The Apollo Program: How NASA sent astronauts to the moon

Nouns and verbs

Equally revolutionary as the AGC's small size was the way the Apollo astronauts interacted with it. Rather than carrying thousands of punch cards into space or relying on a sprawling bank of switches and lights, as was typical for computers of the time, MIT designed one of the first display and keyboard systems, which was then used to enter numbers representing verb and noun codes.

To those accustomed to modern point-and-click setups, the AGC's approach can appear challenging to grasp. In essence, verbs represented actions the computer could perform, while nouns were specific data inputs.

For example, pressing "verb" followed by "35" triggered a test of the indicator lights and display. Verb and noun commands also instructed the Apollo lunar module's computer to begin the landing routine. Both of these actions can be replicated on the DSKY Moonwatch.

Verb and noun codes also allow users to adjust the watch's time, alarm, stopwatch and GPS navigation functionalities. On the Apollo missions, astronauts used a "cheat sheet" to keep track of nearly 200 verbs and nouns. Wearers have a similar guide, so there is no long list of codes to memorize.

"We felt a profound responsibility to get this right," said Clayton. "We wanted to create something that the community is going to be accepting of, where they say, 'This is exactly how we would have designed it ourselves.'"

Code pre-loaded

Half a decade in the making, Apollo Instruments' DSKY Moonwatch is designed to replicate the DSKY aboard the Apollo 11 lunar module at a 4:6:1 scale, featuring identical fonts and color backlighting. The commitment to authenticity extended to matching the original number of bulbs (three) behind each indicator light.

The LED lights inside the watch normally emit a pure-white light, lacking the warm glow of the DSKY's original incandescent bulbs. To replicate the precise hue, the team enlisted Rosco, a multi-Academy Award-winning company, to design custom color filters. "Creating the [DSKY] Moonwatch posed major challenges," said Clayton. "But we wanted users to experience it just as Apollo astronauts did with the original."

The watch's open-source core code was written to be user-friendly and open up wide-ranging possibilities for programmers. This includes porting the original Luminary code, designed by Apollo software lead Margaret Hamilton and her team at MIT, onto the watch. Enthusiasts can connect the DSKY Moonwatch to a spaceflight simulator on their computer and recreate the Apollo 11 mission, punching in the same commands as used by Neil Armstrong, Mike Collins and Buzz Aldrin.

Containing 40,000 lines of code, Luminary was the software for the Apollo lunar module. During Apollo 11's landing, error messages started flashing as bad radar data overloaded the system.

Because the lunar module used one of the first fly-by-wire systems, Armstong's joystick inputs did not directly control the spacecraft; instead, they were processed by the computer first, making the situation potentially mission-ending. However, the Luminary code was designed to prioritize essential tasks, allowing the Apollo computer to dump the bad data and ensure a successful landing.

Beyond the moon

Museum docents and history buffs often like to cite that the modern smartphone has more computing power than all of NASA had in 1969, or that a smart doorbell has the same computing power as the Apollo spacecraft. But this overlooks the true power of the Apollo Guidance Computer. While it doesn't match modern devices in raw processing power, it was remarkably reliable and capable for the mission it was designed to accomplish.

Porting the Luminary code onto the DSKY Moonwatch is just one of the ways Clayton envisions people interacting with the watch. "You can upload your own custom code onto it," he said. "It can be used as a tool for a maths or physics project. The possibilities are limited only by the user's imagination."

Future innovations to the watch will be community-led. "We're considering a miniaturized Apollo Guidance Computer with a customized circuit board to connect with the Moonwatch, but we want the community to guide our next steps," Clayton said.

Related: Lunar legacy: 45 Apollo moon mission photos

The Apollo Guidance Computer and DSKY were groundbreaking developments in both space exploration and computing; without them, the moon landings wouldn't have been possible. For Clayton and his team, the goal with the DSKY Moonwatch was to create a "jewel of miniaturization:" a replica you could wear on your wrist that captured the Apollo astronaut experience while enabling new uses for the legacy design.

Apollo Instruments' DSKY Moonwatch is available for pre-order now with a down payment of £240 (about $300 U.S.) against the total cost of £649 ($820 U.S.).

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In addition to narrating the 50-minute production, Hanks co-wrote "Moonwalkers" with Christopher Riley, who is known for his work on space-theme documentaries for the BBC, Netflix and PBS. The film features original NASA mission audio alongside Hanks' voice, accompanied by an original score recorded by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at Abbey Road Studios.

Related: Tom Hanks returns to the moon with 'The Moonwalkers,' a new visual experience

"The Moonwalkers" also features the Artemis 2 crew, including NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, as well as Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen. The four are now slated to launch no earlier than April 2026, to become the first people to fly to the moon since the Apollo 17 astronauts in December 1972.

On screen, "The Moonwalkers" draws from the film and image archive created by the 12 people (to date) who have walked on the moon. These include photographs reworked by digital image restorer Andy Saunders for his 2022 book "Apollo Remastered," which impart new clarity and vibrancy to the Apollo visual record.

"We are thrilled to be the first in the Americas to showcase this epic film," said William Harris, president and CEO of Space Center Houston, the official visitor center for NASA's Johnson Space Center in Texas. "'The Moonwalkers' aligns perfectly with our mission to bring people closer to space."

"Our guests will be awe-struck," said Harris, "as they embark on an immersive, unforgettable journey beyond Earth."

Co-directed by Nick Corrigan and Lysander Ashton of 59 Studio, the film will be screened daily in Space Center Houston's newly renovated Space Center Theater, offering guests an ongoing opportunity to experience "The Moonwalkers." The upgrades to the theater will enhance the viewing experience, recreating the original U.K. production.

"The Moonwalkers" first opened at Lightroom, near King's Cross station, in December 2023. First set for a four-month run, "The Moonwalkers" at Lightroom has been extended three times with tickets still available for shows through April 27, 2025. Space Center Houston is the first location outside of Lightroom to host the groundbreaking film.

Showtimes, tickets and other details for "The Moonwalkers'" first U.S. engagement are still to be announced.

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The promotional video, published by the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) on Nov. 21, shows not only animations of planned activities but also tests on hardware being developed to make the moon mission possible.

China's moon landing is planned to take place before 2030. It will involve two launches of the Long March 10 rocket, currently being developed, separately sending a crewed spacecraft, named Mengzhou, and a lunar landing stack, named Lanyue, into lunar orbit. There, the two spacecraft will dock and a pair of astronauts will transfer to Lanyue and descend to the lunar surface.

The video shows Lanyue on the moon with a lunar rover being deployed onto the surface. It then shows the astronauts operating the rover and driving along planned routes.

Related: How China will land astronauts on the moon by 2030

Also shown are a hotfire test of a Long March 10 first stage, a parachute deployment test during an airdrop, a separation test using a Lanyue prototype test article, the lunar extravehicular suit that will be worn by the astronauts and work on a Mengzhou crew spacecraft along with other ground tests and facilities.

Finally, the video shows a diagram detailing what the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on Hainan island will look like when ready to host the lunar mission launches. Wenchang is China's only coastal spaceport and hosts launches of the country's current largest rocket, the Long March 5 series. The spaceport is being expanded to be capable of launching the larger Long March 10 and the future Long March 9 super heavy-lift launcher, which will look a lot like SpaceX's Starship.

Meanwhile, NASA is working on returning its astronauts to lunar surface for the first time since the end of the Apollo program. If all goes according to plan, that will happen with the Artemis 3 mission in late 2026.

"What's surprising is how much of this information is either lost or at least not in a condition that anybody can use it in," planetary scientist David Williams of the National Space Science Data Center Archive (NSSDCA) told Space.com. "We've got tons of photography, reels of film from various missions, a lot of microfilm and microfiche. We're slowly working through it."

The detective work required to hunt through archives, basements and forgotten store-rooms at institutions all across the United States to find and restore this old data couldn't be more important; the unearthed data can still be used by researchers today to help guide missions of the future. For instance, take the team working on NASA's DAVINCI (Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging) mission, which will begin its trip to Venus in the early 2030s. It will be the first dedicated, American-led Venusian mission since the 1990s (Europe and Japan have both been back to Venus since then). One of its targets on the carbon-dioxide enshrouded planet is a continent-sized plateau called Alpha Regio, which is a gigantic tessera of deformed surface features linked to volcanism and possibly impacts.

So, to know what DAVINCI should look for on Alpha Regio, the mission's team of scientists has gone back to the past, applying modern-day analysis and machine-learning techniques to data from NASA's Magellan Venus mission from the early 1990s, coupled with some archive Arecibo radar data. The goal is to build a new map of Alpha Regio and identify puzzling geological structures on the tessera that may have gone unnoticed. In a similar use of old data, earlier this year, researchers found evidence for volcanic activity in Magellan data from 1990 to 1992.

Meet the archivists

None of this old data would be available and in a usable condition if it were not for the hard work of the team at the NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive (NSSDCA) at the agency's Goddard Space Flight Center. The NSSDCA's job is to restore and digitize data from all interplanetary space missions. Together, the crew hunts for lost data from some of NASA's earliest missions, including the Apollo missions to the moon. (Other institutions are responsible for the data from other types of missions; for instance the Space Telescope Science Institute, which manages the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes, is also tasked with archiving the data from the observatories.)

As the head of the NSSDCA, David Williams probably has one of the best jobs at NASA. His role isn't just to be an archivist; it's also to play detective, figuring out where missing data might be lurking, then working out what that data is telling us and how it should be formatted so that it can be useful to future generations of astronomers.

"I love that aspect of it," he enthused in an interview with Space.com. "Trying to dig up the data and figure something out is when I have the most fun here."

Prior to about the mid- to late-1980s, there were no rules on how to archive precious astronomical data collected by space missions. In fact, some researchers didn't even bother to archive their data at all. By the late 1980s, the authorities at NASA's Planetary Data System (PDS), which is the one-stop shop for planetary science data, flexed their muscles and began insisting on an archival process, even to the point of denying funding to researchers who didn't archive their data. The job of making sure things are archived properly falls to Williams and the NSSDCA.

"Now you know that if there's been a mission since Magellan [from 1989] or thereabouts, the data are going to be well documented and complete with very few exceptions," he said. However, for missions before then, the availability and quality of the data can be a crapshoot.

"Back even to the mid-80s really, there were no systematic rules about archiving data," said Williams. "This is something that I learned big time when I started doing this."

Now, when applying for funding, researchers must not only submit all their raw data, but also the documentation that explains what the data is measuring and how it should be displayed. Researchers must undergo a "data review," where Williams and his colleagues scrutinize the data and documentation and make sure they have everything they need — anything that isn't sufficiently laid out gets sent back to the researchers to be fixed.

Still missing data

There's still lots of data from experiments and missions from before this rigorous validation scheme was introduced that just hasn't been archived, has incomplete documentation, or is even simply missing, perhaps permanently.

"The documentation is just as important as the data. We used to get boxes of tapes with a cover letter, 'here's all the data from such-and-such mission,' and we'd wonder: 'What are we supposed to do with this?'" said Williams. "For the really old stuff, there's not even anyone to talk to about it, so you have to find out yourself how the experiment worked."

Today everything is digitized and backed-up, but the original source — be it a print-out, microfilm or nine-track tape — is retained, contained in an "archive information packet" that is basically just a wrapper with the data's ID. Because boxes of print-outs can take up lots of room, back in the old days, many of those print-outs were transferred to microfilm and microfiche (transparencies containing scaled-down images of printed items) , but now a lot of the NSSDCA staff's time is spent digitizing these microfilms, and, in the process, have discovered alarming gaps and vulnerabilities in the archive.

"About 15 years ago, we got a request from someone for the data from the Viking biology experiment," said Williams. This was an experiment on the two Viking landers from 1976 that was designed to test samples of Martian dirt for the presence of microbial life. Williams believed that all the biology experiment data was on microfilm, but when he sat down in the archive to sift through the documentation pertaining to the experiment to try and find the requested data, he couldn't find it. Perhaps it had been discarded, or gone bad, mused Williams.

"And I realized that I'm sitting there with these boxes of microfilm, and they are the only thing that's left from that Viking biology experiment," he said. "If something happened to these boxes of microfilm they would be gone. So I said let's just get this digitized right now and give copies to everyone we know and make sure it can't get lost. It was a scary thought, and I do believe that from the older missions there is data that has been lost and we're never going to find it."

The weird story of Apollo's ALSEP stations

Sometimes, the story behind lost data is more bizarre than it just getting chucked out in the trash.

Take the case of the ALSEP stations. Short for Apollo Lunar Surface Experiment Packages, these were science stations left on the moon by every Apollo mission that landed after Apollo 11 (Apollo 11 deployed a simpler package, but it was still basically the same thing). The ALSEP stations recorded things such as temperature, moonquakes, cosmic-ray exposure, heat flow in the sub-surface, the moon's gravitational and magnetic field, and more. The ALSEP stations took these readings continuously, beaming them back to Earth until the stations were shut down in 1977.

Their data had been stored on magnetic tape at the University of Texas at Galveston — and then the Marine Mammal Protection Act happened.

What does that have to do with astronomical data? "This is what makes it so weird!" said Williams. Previously, magnetic tapes had used whale oil as a lubricant to prevent them from drying out or getting stuck in the tape players.

"It turned out that whale oil was the perfect lubricant for computer tapes, because it was non-conductive, it didn't harm the magnetic substrate, it did have magnetic properties and didn’t mess up the tape-reading machines," said Williams.

With the (quite right) passing of the Marine Mammal Protection Act, whale oil could no longer be used. That was okay; a company had anticipated this and devised a new lubricant to replace the whale oil. But then, six months later, it was discovered that the new lubricant was drying out the magnetic tapes and causing them to rip in the tape players.

That left NASA in a bind. Data was coming down from satellites and interplanetary missions all the time, and they needed tapes to record that data. There was no time to wait for someone to come up with a new lubricant, as they needed somewhere to store all this new incoming data.

"So, they started pillaging old tapes that still had whale oil on them and writing over them," said Williams. "And at some point someone found the ALSEP tapes and wrote over them, so now they're gone."

All that survived were a bunch of tapes that contained about two weeks' worth of data from the ALSEP stations that some researchers must have borrowed from the archive before the pillaging began.

"All the other ones were gone," said Williams. "And all because of whale oil!"

The Iron Mountain

Thankfully, today we do not need to rely on whale oil, or magnetic tapes. All new data is digitized, and old data is in the process of being digitized. It's all now on the cloud, of course, but hard copies still exist in two locations: one, at the NSSDCA, and two at a location known as "Iron Mountain."

Iron Mountain is actually the name of a company that owns "a big archive that everybody uses and they are about 20 or 30 miles away [from NASA Goddard in Maryland, near Washington D.C.]," said Williams. Their name brings to mind a huge, impenetrable mountain inside which, stacked from floor to ceiling, are servers, boxes and stacks of magnetic tapes.

That's not actually too far from what the truth — or, at least, what the truth used to be.

"Originally they did have a 'mountain' in Pennsylvania, a giant mine that they used to store stuff so that it could be completely protected from anything that ever happened," said Williams. "And that's why it's called Iron Mountain."

Short of nuclear war, the data should be safe. Even if, as Williams joked, a tornado wiped out NSSDCA, the backed-up data at Iron Mountain would be secure. If something so large happened that it took out both NSSDCA and Iron Mountain, then we'd probably have bigger things to worry about than losing some astronomical data, laughed Williams.

Moving with the times

A bigger threat than natural disasters these days are the dreaded computer software or media updates. We've all seen them — I'd bet you've updated a program to the latest version at some point, only to watch it fail to open your oldest files. Or, consider the stacks of VHS tapes now consigned to landfill simply because the way that we consume media has moved on.

Thus, essential in archiving data is making it future-proof so that we can still open and read it 50 or 100 years down the line.

"We try and keep up with the media, because what happens is that the media lasts longer than the actual machines to read the media," said Williams. "We have all the nine-track tapes but no nine-track tape readers that work anymore."

More broadly, "here is a natural competition between making the data available in modern format, and making something that someone in the future is going to be able to open, and not say, 'oh, I don't know what a Google spreadsheet is,'" he said.

Because the software changes all the time, at the NSSDCA, they try to use the simplest thing, such as an ASCII table. ASCII stands for American Standard Code for Information Interchange. It uses numbers to represent characters with no formatting and is widespread in computing and on the Internet, and can be used by any software, as opposed to an Excel spreadsheet, for example, “which might not even exist in the future,” said Williams.

Currently, Williams and his team are sorting through, restoring and digitizing old data from the NASA Pioneer Venus mission, which operated between 1978 and 1992, in anticipation of the forthcoming DAVINCI mission, VERITAS (Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy) endeavor and Europe's EnVision mission to Venus, all hopefully launching in the late 2020s and early 2030s.

"We think a lot of that data might be useful," said Williams. Indeed, as we saw at the top of this article, the DAVINCI team is already using it.

Researchers are looking back at old data all the time, applying new processing and analyzing techniques to it to tease out new information. Who knows what discoveries still await us in measurements that were made decades ago?

As the keeper of these secrets, it is all thanks to David Williams and his team for making this data available for posterity.

"Our cake this year is themed for the 55th anniversary of the moon landing. The cake, itself, is a giant sphere, it's on a motor and it spins," said Goldman. "One side of the sphere is the NASA logo and the other side is the moon."

Related: Space food photos: What astronauts eat in orbit

Atop the moon is a hand-sculpted astronaut made out of modeling chocolate.

"Underneath [the sphere] is what's supposed to look like empty space. So its black and has a lot of stars," Goldman said. "And then probably my favorite part of the cake is that we pulled sugar and created nebulae."

Easier in space

It took six cake artists about eight hours at Charm City Cakes to make this year's cake. Unlike the Artemis Space Launch System (SLS) and Perseverance Mars rover cakes that Goldman unveiled at the past two years' events, the shape of the moon presented challenges in overcoming gravity.

"When you're designing a three-dimensional cake, any part of it that has empty space underneath it has to use something for structural support, like styrofoam or wood or PVC. Something that can hold its hold its own weight, because cake doesn't do that," Goldman told collectSPACE.

So in the case of the moon, everything below the equator needs to be made out of support structure and everything above it is cake.

And then there is there is the matter of it spinning.

"Anytime you make something spin, even if it's going really slow, your difficulty level rises exponentially. Cakes really don't like to move," said Goldman. "Cake is very airy and the only thing that's supporting all of its weight is gluten. When you start adding movement to it, any sort of vibration, you begin degrading the structural integrity of the gluten. So any kind of movement is risky."

Both of the concerns could be more easier addressed if the cake was made in the microgravity environment of space, according to Goldman.

"This specific cake would be easier to make in space than it is on Earth because liquid in zero-g forms a perfect sphere," Goldman said. "Cake batter has surface tension, just like water. So if we were in space, I could conceivably make a bunch of cake batter and then very carefully inject it inside of the oven. You then turn the oven on and have a perfectly-sphere cake that you could then decorate. You then would have no need for the support structure that we need on Earth."

"Also, because you're in zero-g, you would be able to spin the cake indefinitely with no motor because there's no friction," he said.

Serving up the moon

"I think I could pull this off in space. The trick here is convincing NASA that this science is worth pursuing. I will volunteer my time to be the first astro-pâtissier," said Goldman with a laugh.

NASA would also need to agree on the design of an oven for such a project. Safety concerns and power constraints have limited the International Space Station to only having a food warmer, with the exception of a small oven launched and retired in 2019 to attempt baking chocolate chip cookies.

Back to the "Taste of Space," in years past Goldman's cake served — and was served — as the dessert for the evening. On Saturday, cupcakes and other pastries took the cake's place, so it could be available for the next day's Taste of Space: Celebrity Chef Ice Cream Social, a new event where families can have their photos taken with Goldman and the cake, as well as craft their own signature sundaes.

"We just wanted to make sure as many people see it as possible," sad Goldman. "But at the social, we are going to slice into it."

"When you think about it, to go to the extent of making something like this and then not be able to have the cake, then what's the point?" he said.

Follow collectSPACE.com on Facebook and on X at @collectSPACE. Copyright 2024 collectSPACE.com. All rights reserved.

Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the second person ever to walk on the moon, endorsed Trump in a statement today (Oct. 30), less than a week before the Nov. 5 presidential election.

"Over the years, I have seen our government's approach to space wax and wane, a fluctuating dynamic that has disappointed me from time to time," the former moonwalker wrote in the statement, which was released by Buzz Aldrin Ventures LLC.

"But under the first Trump Administration, I was impressed to see how human space exploration was elevated, made a policy of high importance again," Aldrin added. "Under President Trump's first term, America saw a revitalized interest in space. His administration reignited national efforts to get back to the moon, and push on to Mars — programs that continue today."

NASA is doing much of its moon-to-Mars work via its Artemis program of lunar exploration, which was established in 2017 to help achieve the ambitious goals laid out by Trump's Space Policy Directive-1.That directive instructed NASA to return astronauts to the moon, then send people to the Red Planet.

Related: In photos - President Donald Trump and NASA

The 94-year-old Aldrin gave other reasons for his endorsement as well. For example, he cited Trump's 2017 resurrection of the National Space Council after a quarter-century hiatus, his push to create the U.S. Space Force (which happened in December 2019) and the advances in private spaceflight that occurred during Trump's first term.

"These are concrete accomplishments that align with my concerns and America's policy priorities," Aldrin wrote. "For me, for the future of our nation, to meet enormous challenges, and for the proven policy accomplishments above, I believe the nation is best served by voting for Donald J. Trump."

Aldrin isn't the only former NASA astronaut to throw his name behind a presidential candidate. For example, both Jose Hernandez and Senator Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) have endorsed Trump's opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.

"I couldn't be more confident that Vice President @KamalaHarris is the right person to defeat Donald Trump and lead our country into the future. She has my support for the nomination, and Gabby and I will do everything we can to elect her President of the United States," Kelly wrote in a post on X this past July.

Kelly's wife is former Arizona congresswoman Gabby Giffords, who was shot in the head during a public event in January 2011. Since then, both Kelly and Giffords have campaigned for stricter gun-control laws, among other policy priorities.

"We are thrilled with the result, because Ed Mitchell's Apollo Rolex is the most expensive item we've ever sold," Bobby Livingston, RR Auction's executive vice president for public relations, told collectSPACE.com soon after the auction ended. RR previously auctioned the first seat on Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket for $28 million, but Mitchell's Rolex was the most expensive physical item the company has sold since its founding in 1976. 

"There is a huge crossover appeal to watch collectors who don't necessarily collect space material," said Livingston. "Watch collectors appreciate the importance of reliable timepieces that were used on historic lunar missions."

NASA issued each of its Apollo crew members with an Omega Speedmaster Professional chronograph to be used in space. The "Speedys" were government property and today are in the care of the Smithsonian.

Related: The Apollo Program: How NASA sent astronauts to the moon

Some Apollo astronauts chose to bring a second watch. Mostly hidden from view, as only the Omega watches were authorized to be worn on Velcro straps atop the astronauts' spacesuits, these personal timepieces were largely unknown to the public.

Eagle-eyed collectors and enthusiasts "discovered" the existence of these secondary watches by scouring the pre-launch, in-flight and post-landing imagery that was taken of the astronauts. Mitchell's Rolex can be seen in photos and film stills of him suiting up for his Jan. 31, 1971 launch and while aboard the Apollo 14 command module. Similarly, Apollo 13 crew member Jack Swigert and Apollo 17 astronaut Ron Evans are also known to have flown personal Rolex GMT-Masters.

Evans' Rolex, which remained with him in lunar orbit while his crewmates Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt landed on the moon, was sold by Dallas-based Heritage Auctions in 2009 for $131,450 (including the buyer's premium). Evans also came back from the moon with a Speedmaster he retained from a science experiment as a memento. Forty-three years later, Christie's auctioned Evans' Omega keepsake for $245,000. The Swiss watchmaker obtained the rare flown watch for its own museum in Bienne.

That same year (2015), RR Auction sold the only non-Omega watch to be worn over an Apollo astronaut's spacesuit out onto the surface of the moon for $1.6 million (including the premium). Apollo 15 commander David Scott wore a Bulova chronograph he personally brought with him to space during the third of his three moonwalks after the crystal covering his Speedmaster was lost. NASA considered the Bulova to be an "unauthorized timepiece."

RR Auction also sold an 18-karat gold commemorative Speedmaster that belonged to astronaut Wally Schirra for $1.9 million in 2022. It remains the most ever paid for one of the 36 gold watches that Omega gifted the Apollo-era astronauts, including Scott's, which sold for $160,365 in Thursday's auction.

RR Auction described Mitchell's Rolex GMT-Master as being "in fine cosmetic condition, with light scratches and wear from use." The 40mm watch has a black dial and blue-and-red bezel with a 24-hour scale (nicknamed the "Pepsi" color scheme).

"This is probably the most important Rolex 'Pepsi' watch that's out there," said Livingston, while noting he is not a watch expert.

The caseback was engraved, "Worn by Cdr. E. Mitchell on Apollo 14, 1971, To Karlin [sic] — My Daughter." The lot included a certificate of authenticity signed by Mitchell, certifying that "the accompanying Rolex watch was worn by me during the Apollo 14 mission."

It is unknown if Mitchell wore or brought the Rolex on the lunar module when he and Alan Shepard landed on the moon or if he wore it under his spacesuit when he became the sixth human to walk on the lunar surface. Mitchell died in 2016 at the age of 85.

The most ever paid for a Rolex GMT-Master was the $5.1 million ($5,124,783) spent at Christie's in 2023 for the watch worn by Marlon Brando while filming the 1979 movie "Apocalypse Now."

Follow collectSPACE.com on Facebook and on X at @collectSPACE. Copyright 2024 collectSPACE.com. All rights reserved.

Although Armstrong often preferred to defer to others who made the Apollo moon landings and U.S. space program possible, he delivered many remarks throughout his years as a NASA astronaut, aerospace engineering professor, board member and private advocate for space exploration. 

Related: Neil Armstrong: First man on the moon

He gave testimony before Congress, commemorated past spaceflights on their anniversaries and spoke to students at Purdue, where he had earned a Bachelor of Science in aeronautical engineering in 1955 and an honorary doctorate in 1970. 

Many of the talks that have now been digitized include Armstrong's handwritten annotations, including comments or arrows in the margins, suggesting changes that he wanted to make to the word or phrase order. 

For example, in his 2006 acceptance speech for NASA's Ambassador of Exploration Award, Armstrong decided at some point not to describe the hue of a moon rock he named "Bok." "Boks [sic] statistics: Color: Charcoal grey. Weight: 2.24 kilograms. Age: 600 million years," read the original typewritten speech. Armstrong scratched out "Color: Charcoal grey" in pen and omitted that part when delivering the tale of Bok.

Other notes were his quips, such as those that he jotted down for one of his return visits to Purdue. 

"There's a peculiar sensation when watching the Earth sink away from you and get small," he wrote on one sheet that began, "Great to be back at Purdue. Forgive an intruder from aero school." 

Otremba said that Armstrong frequently added information that can now provide the public with additional context for the speech. "He often added notes on the speeches sharing the date and location the speech was given, which is an interesting feature," Otremba said.

The speeches are part of a larger collection of papers and items that Armstrong began donating to Purdue four years prior to his death in 2012. Those holdings became the basis for the Barron Hilton Flight and Space Exploration Archives, which now include the records of other engineers, aviation professionals, scholars and more astronauts, including Purdue alumni Gene Cernan, who commanded the last Apollo mission to the moon, and record-setting spacewalker Jerry Ross.

Armstrong's personal archive, though, continues to be one of the most accessed collections for research requests and instructional usage, according to the university. The complete physical collection, which is available for research at the Virginia Kelly Karnes Archives and Special Collections Research Center on the Purdue West Lafayette campus, totals more than 70,000 documents, filling more than 450 boxes.

Increasing the ease of access to the collection by bringing it online has been the university's goal since the acquisition of the speeches. The work to scan the transcripts was funded by the Purdue Research Foundation and Carol Armstrong beginning in 2022. The process itself is lengthy and requires that each speech be described, vetted for third-party copyright and then uploaded to e-Archives.

Follow collectSPACE.com on Facebook and on Twitter at @collectSPACE. Copyright 2024 collectSPACE.com. All rights reserved.

The Artemis program aims to land humans on the moon for the first time since the Apollo missions managed to achieve the feat over 50 years ago. Astronauts will land near the lunar south pole, where permanently shadowed regions may contain areas of water ice that could be accessed to support future missions to Mars.

The Lunar Navigation Challenge, which officially opened on Sept. 4, seeks ideas for a low-tech backup navigational device astronauts can use to find their way across the surface of the moon, traveling to and from the lunar lander, along with creative solutions for accessing and mapping the bottom of Shackleton Crater, which is about 13 miles (21 kilometers) in diameter and 2.6 miles (4.2 km) deep. 

"The early Artemis missions will face many new challenges. One of them will be orienteering at the lunar south pole which is complicated by the extreme light and shadows from the low sun elevation," according to the contest entry page, which is hosted by freelancer.com. "These conditions make it harder for the astronauts to orient themselves by only line of sight when performing Extravehicular Activities (EVAs)."  

Related: Missions to the moon: Past, present and future 

Both individuals and teams are invited to participate in the challenge. Designs submitted for consideration must take into account the extreme environment of the lunar surface and ensure accuracy, ease of use (while using pressurized astronaut gloves) and autonomy — meaning they cannot rely on power, electronics or internal software. 

Traversing and mapping Shackleton Crater, which is one of the largest permanently shadowed regions on the moon, will be particularly challenging due to difficult topography — including steep crater walls, cliffs and large boulders —  low temperatures, a lack of magnetic field, extremely low atmospheric pressure and limited satellite data of the area or sightlines to other celestial or orbital bodies, according to the contest page.

Two sections of the challenge will be judged independently. Participants can submit to either or both challenges, the first of which — developing a low-tech orienteering device — has a prize of $15,000, while the second — creating a method to survey and map the bottom of Shackleton Crater — has a $30,000 award. An additional $5,000 will be distributed among solutions from both challenges that show exceptional achievement, for a grand total of $50,000 in prizes. 

Freelancer.com will host an informational webinar with NASA to answer questions about the challenge on Oct. 2 at 12 p.m. EDT. Participants can register for the event online. More information about the challenge and official rules can also be found online.

All participants are required to complete an entry form for each challenge. Submissions for the challenges must be received by Nov. 25 and winners will be announced on Jan. 15, 2025.

Polaris Dawn is poised to make history.

The SpaceX mission, which is scheduled to launch early Tuesday morning (Aug. 27), will send four people to orbit for five days aboard a Crew Dragon capsule. That quartet will get farther from Earth than any human since the Apollo era — and two of them will perform the first spacewalk ever conducted by a private mission.

Here’s a brief rundown of what to expect during the epic Polaris Dawn spacewalk, which you'll be able to watch live, via a SpaceX webcast.

Mission Day 3

The spacewalk, or extravehicular activity (EVA), will take place on the third day of the mission — so, on Thursday (Aug. 29). SpaceX and the Polaris Dawn team have not yet announced a target time.

Related: SpaceX Polaris Dawn crew lands at launch site ahead of 1st-ever private spacewalk mission (photos, video)

The EVA will feature two of the four crewmembers — commander Jared Isaacman, the billionaire tech entrepreneur who funded and organized Polaris Dawn, and mission specialist Sarah Gillis, an engineer at SpaceX. But the other two astronauts — mission specialist Anna Menon, also a SpaceX engineer, and pilot Scott "Kidd" Poteet, a former lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force — will don their EVA suits as well. That's because the Crew Dragon doesn't have an airlock, so the capsule's interior will be exposed to the vacuum of space.

The entire EVA operation — from the initial venting to the repressurization of the capsule — will take about two hours, Isaacman said during a press conference on Monday (Aug. 19). 

The actual spacewalking component will comprise perhaps a third of that time. Isaacman and Gillis will spacewalk sequentially, not together, and each will likely spend 15 to 20 minutes outside the capsule, according to mission team members.

Both crewmembers will fully exit the Crew Dragon, Isaacman said. But don’t expect anything too fancy or dramatic, like Ed White's iconic spacewalk in June 1965 — the first-ever EVA by an American astronaut, during which White dangled far away from his Gemini capsule on a 23-foot-long (7 meters) tether.

"The Ed White photo is historic, but I think, as you know, Buzz Aldrin taught us that's not the right way to do an EVA," Isaacman said on Monday, adding that he and Gillis will aim to always maintain at least one point of contact with the "mobility aids" that SpaceX engineered for the mission.

"We're just not going to be just floating around," he said. 

Testing, testing

Isaacman and Gillis will tick off a number of milestones during their time outside the Crew Dragon.

"It'll look like we're doing a little bit of a dance. And what that is is, we're going through a series of test matrix on the suit," Isaacman said. "The idea is to learn as much as we possibly can about the suit and get it back to the engineers to inform future suit design evolutions."

Indeed, the EVA suits, which SpaceX developed in house, are not one-offs for Polaris Dawn alone. The company intends to use them — or future versions of them — on a variety of missions in Earth orbit and beyond.

"It's not lost on us that, you know, it might be 10 iterations from now and a bunch of evolutions of the suit, but that, someday, someone could be wearing a version of which that might be walking on Mars," Isaacman said. "And it feels like, again, a huge honor to have that opportunity to test it out on this flight."

Polaris Dawn is the first of three planned missions in the Polaris Program, which Isaacman is organizing and funding. If all goes according to plan, the third Polaris flight will be the first-ever crewed mission of Starship, the enormous vehicle that SpaceX is developing to help humanity settle the moon and Mars.

Two women astronauts will set a spaceflight record next week, if all goes according to plan. 

The Polaris Dawn mission is scheduled to launch atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket no earlier than Aug. 27. It aims to perform the first-ever private spacewalk and to fly at a higher altitude above Earth than any crewed spacecraft since the Apollo era, at about 870 miles (1,400 kilometers). The mission is funded and commanded by billionaire Jared Isaacman, who also funded and commanded the private Inspiration4 orbital mission in 2021.

Polaris Dawn's four-person crew includes female mission specialists Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon, both of whom are SpaceX engineers, as well as male pilot Scott "Kidd" Poteet. The highest-flying woman before Gillis and Menon was NASA astronaut Kathryn Sullivan, who reached 386 miles (621 km) on the STS-31 mission during the space shuttle program, according to NASA and space statistics tracker Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Institute of Astrophysics.

STS-31's extreme altitude was a result of its main goal: deploying the Hubble Space Telescope, a top-tier space observatory still active today thanks to the efforts of spacewalking astronauts on five different servicing missions. On board STS-31 were five astronauts, including Sullivan, who reached space just seven years after NASA flew its first woman astronaut (Sally Ride, in June 1983).

The five Hubble servicing missions, which flew between 1993 and 2009, reached lower altitudes than STS-31. While a few crewed missions ranged farther into space than Hubble's height, all of those were performed by male-only crews.

Related: SpaceX Polaris Dawn crew lands at launch site ahead of 1st-ever private spacewalk mission (photos, video)

The highest mission in Earth orbit featured NASA astronauts Dick Gordon and Pete Conrad, aboard Gemini 11 in September 1966. They reached a pre-Apollo altitude record of 850 miles (1,368 km), which Polaris Dawn aims to beat.

The historic Apollo program missions carried only male astronauts. Apollo 8, which launched in December 1968, was the first of these flights to reach the moon. It was followed by Apollos 10 through 17, which flew from 1969 to 1972. 

The farthest-ranging of the group was Apollo 13, which reached a distance of 248,655 miles (400,171 km) from our planet in April 1970. Its orbit was slightly different than the others; its planned lunar landing was foiled by an explosion in the mission's service module two days into the flight. NASA and the Apollo 13 astronauts troubleshot the potentially catastrophic issue, slingshotting the spacecraft around the moon and returning to Earth safe and sound on April 17, 1970.

"Apollo 13: Survival" distinguishes itself from earlier retellings of the mission — including the 1995 Ron Howard movie starring Tom Hanks — by seamlessly integrating archival footage and audio with interviews conducted with the crew, their families and members of ground control. The documentary taps into the same source of previously unseen large-format film as the 2018 film "Apollo 11" and draws from the home movies captured by the Lovell family.

"Our approach immerses the audience in the unfolding drama of the crisis; from inside the spaceship, at mission control and within the families' homes," wrote the filmmakers. "What transpired was one of the great survival stories in human history. A triumph of ingenuity, teamwork and human resilience as the world watched. Waited. Held its collective breath."

Directed by Peter Middleton, whose previous work includes "Notes on Blindness" about writer and theologian John M. Hull and "The Real Charlie Chaplin," "Apollo 13: Survival" was edited by Otto Burnham ("Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story"). James Marsh ("Man on Wire") served as executive consultant.

The film had its world premiere in March at the Copenhagen International Documentary Festival (CPH:DOX) and its North American debut at the DC/DOX Film Festival playing at the National Archives in Washington in June.

Former NASA chief historian and Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum curator Roger Launius said "Apollo 13; Survival" is "by far the best documentary on Apollo 13 yet made."

"We may think we know the story of Apollo 13, but this documentary offers so much more than seen before," said Launius in a statement.

For Lovell, watching the archival footage and "hearing the perspectives of family and friends on the ground" was emotional.

"I am grateful the world now has this excellent documentary showing the raw emotions and triumph we felt back then," he said. "My hope is our experience in space will continue to inspire new heights of exploration for many years to come."

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