— The 50th anniversary celebration of the moon landing continues at the Museum of Flight with the Lunar Block Party, July 19-21. The event is set to include various educational and entertainment events including demos of space team exploration, a rebroadcast of the original moon landing footage, and science activities for kids such as the STEM Moonshot LEGO build. The event will also feature concerts by American Idol winners and Britishmania, a Beatles tribute band.
— The Nintendo Switch Road Tripis making its local stop at Seattle Center on July 19. The Road Trip features Nintendo’s semi-truck full of Switch consoles where you can try out new Switch games. The event also includes tournaments and photo opportunities.
Here are more highlights from the GeekWire Calendar:
Living with Tech: Art: A presentation from the cofounders of OPEN studio who worked on a variety of art installations, including two at the Amazon Spheres at the Living Computers Museum + Labs in Seattle; 6 to 9 p.m., Thursday, July 18.
Intro to Breadboarding: A workshop where you can learn how to build computers from household items at the Living Computers Museum + Labs in Seattle; 10:30 a.m. to 12 p.m., Saturday, July 20.
Selling Your Startup Panel: A panel discussing strategies for successfully selling a startup at Atlas Workbase in Seattle; 5 to 7 p.m., Monday, July 22.
Plant Geek Trivia: A combination of trivia and board games supporting Plant Amnesty at Lagunitas Taproom in Seattle; 6:30 to 8 p.m., Monday, July 22.
Expanding the Product Portfolio: A panel discussion about why and how companies pursue new products at The Columbia Tower in Seattle; 6 to 8 p.m., Tuesday, July 23.
Japan Seattle AI Innovation Meetup: A chance for local tech companies to explore business opportunities with Japanese companies at The Central Library in Seattle; 1 to 5 p.m., Thursday, July 25.
For more upcoming events, check out the GeekWire Calendar, where you can find meetups, conferences, startup events, and geeky gatherings in the Pacific Northwest and beyond. Organizing an event? Submit details here.
Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins (played by Patrick Kennedy) looks out at the moon in a dramatization that’s part of “8 Days: To the Moon and Back.” (BBC Studios)
Even after 50 years, it’s still possible to find new angles on one of history’s most widely witnessed events — as this year’s retellings of the Apollo 11 moon saga demonstrate.
But “Chasing the Moon,” a six-hour documentary series that premieres Monday on PBS, freshens the Apollo story in different ways. Oscar-nominated filmmaker Robert Stone goes back to the roots of the U.S.-Soviet moon race and brings in perspectives that rarely get a share of the spotlight.
For example, Sergei Khrushchev, the son of ’60s-era Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, helps tell the Russian side of the story — including the fact that the “missile gap” used as the rationale for the President John Kennedy’s ramped-up space program didn’t actually exist. Just before his assassination in 1963, a budget-conscious Kennedy floated an offer to cooperate with the Soviets on moon missions — but the Soviets turned him down, for fear that their secrets would be exposed.
“Chasing the Moon” also turns the spotlight on hidden figures including Poppy Northcutt, the first woman engineer to work in NASA’s Mission Control; and Ed Dwight, the test pilot who seemed destined to become Apollo’s first black astronaut but lost his place after Kennedy’s death. (In the documentary, Dwight recalls how Ed White, one of the astronauts who would later die in the 1967 Apollo 1 fire, kept getting fan mail that was meant for him instead.)
National Geographic takes a different tack in its retelling of the Apollo story. Premiering on Sunday, “Apollo: Missions to the Moon” knits together a two-hour documentary that relies exclusively on archival video. Poppy Northcutt makes her appearance in a ’60s-era miniskirt. There’s an inside look at the lives of the astronauts’ families, courtesy of TV coverage from the time. And we see TV personalities and news anchors chronicling the space effort’s feats, foibles and failures as they happen.
The Smithsonian Channel is adding a twist of augmented reality to “Apollo’s Moon Shot,” its six-part documentary series: You can download an app for iOS or Android that gives you the sense of sitting inside the Apollo 11 command module, lets you take a selfie in a virtual spacesuit, or watch a Saturn V rocket lift off from your AR-enhanced surroundings.
In cooperation with the Smithsonian, USA Today and Florida Today are gearing up their 321 Launch augmented-reality app to track the Apollo 11 mission as it happened 50 years ago, on an hour-by-hour basis starting July 16. The John F. Kennedy Library Foundation is offering it own AR app for iOS and Android called “JFK Moonshot.” And Microsoft has created an Apollo AR app for HoloLens — which unfortunately was involved in something of a misfire at its launch in May.
Book authors are also in the hunt for new angles to Apollo. When science writer Nancy Atkinson was doing the research for her newly published book, “Eight Years to the Moon,” she came across reports of a potentially catastrophic anomaly that occurred during the Apollo 11 command module’s re-entry through Earth’s atmosphere. The problem was addressed by the time Apollo 13 was launched and faded into the background.
Atkinson said an engineer who was in on the Apollo 11 debriefings shared information about the anomaly with her for the book. The engineer also shared the details with the team working on NASA’s Orion deep-space crew capsule “so that the same problem doesn’t happen for future missions returning from the moon or elsewhere,” she told GeekWire.
You can get the full story in “Eight Years to the Moon,” starting on page 214. “Being honest here, I want people to buy the book!” Atkinson joked.
— The Apollo Program and moon landing is a historic event captured in a variety of media. Movies, television, and books have all told the story of the 12 men who flew to the moon. But now the moon landing is making its mark in another medium: the stage musical. Stephen Edwards’ Moon Landing The Musical will be performed at the Museum of Flight in Seattle on July 13. The musical tells the story through the astronauts’ eyes and deals with the human stories behind the Apollo mission, including the personal struggles of leaving family members behind.
— In another celebration of the mission to the moon, the Living Computers Museum + Labs is hosting Space Weekend on July 13-14. This family-friendly event includes the chance to see the museum’s brand new Apollo exhibit, play some space-related games, and a look at some of the supercomputers that played a role in the Apollo program.
Here are more highlights from the GeekWire Calendar:
Intro to Raspberry Pi: A workshop where you can learn the basics of programming for Raspberry Pi at the Living Computers Museum + Labs in Seattle; 1:30 to 3:30 p.m., Thursday, July 11
Seattle Girl Geek Dinner: A panel focused on women in tech at The Ninety in Seattle; 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., Thursday, July 11.
Cardboard Computers: A workshop where you can learn about the innards of a computer through a cardboard craft at the Living Computers Museum + Labs in Seattle; 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., Saturday, July 13
Rocket Launch Day: A chance to build and launch rockets at The Pacific Science Center in Seattle; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Tuesday, July 16.
We Chose to Go to the Moon: 50 Years On:TIME magazine photographer David Burnett will be presenting the photos he took of the Apollo 10 and 11 missions at The Museum of Flight in Seattle; 2 to 3 p.m., Tuesday, July 16.
The Future of AI in Healthcare: A full-day event discussing advances in AI in a healthcare setting at Block 41 in Seattle; 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Thursday, July 18.
For more upcoming events, check out the GeekWire Calendar, where you can find meetups, conferences, startup events, and geeky gatherings in the Pacific Northwest and beyond. Organizing an event? Submit details here.
The Apollo 11 Lunar Module Timeline Book sits in a display case at the Living Computers Museum + Labs, with a picture of astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in the background. (GeekWire Photo / Kevin Lisota)
The Apollo 11 Lunar Module Timeline Book that sat between Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin for the moon landing 50 years ago is going up for auction, at a price that’s expected to amount to as much as $9 million — but first, it’s going on display.
Today, for one day only, the ring-bound flight manual is on exhibit inside a glass case at Seattle’s Living Computers Museum + Labs. From Seattle, the book travels on to Palo Alto, Calif., for another one-day preview Thursday at the Pace Gallery. Then it’s off to Christie’s auction house in New York for a showing from July 11 to 17.
Christie’s is featuring the book as the marquee item in a 195-lot auction of space artifacts and memorabilia scheduled for July 18, to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon mission.
The auction will also offer manuals from Mercury and Gemini space shots, space-flown flags and emblems, and dozens of documents and photos signed by astronauts. But there’s something special about the fact that the timeline book flew to the moon and back, and played such an important role in the mission, said Christina Geiger, head of books and manuscripts at Christie’s.
She expects the book to sell in the range of $7 million to $9 million. “This is firmly in the range of the most expensive printed books to sell at auction, and I think that that is fully justified, given what it is,” she told GeekWire. “It links us to the greatest adventure that man has ever made.”
The manual sets down the instructions for every step in the lunar landing sequence, and bears the checkmarks of the astronauts for each task completed. In his role as lunar module pilot, Aldrin scribbled down the coordinates for the touchdown on page 10, which Christie’s says represents the first handwriting made by a human on a celestial body other than Earth.
“It’s got quite a track record — sort of an out-of-this-world history,” said space historian Roger Launius, author of a newly released book titled “Apollo’s Legacy.”
After the moon mission, Aldrin held onto the book in accordance with traditions going back to the days of seafaring pilots. He sold the manual to a private collector in 2007, and now that collector is putting it up for sale amid the 50th-anniversary hubbub.
Geiger said the road show, which is coming to Seattle after stopovers in Hong Kong and Beijing, lets people in on a piece of space history that’s been out of the public eye for decades. “That’s part of the excitement, that it really was locked up for almost 50 years,” she said. “And so, [it’s] just tremendously exciting to bring it to people and get to show it off.”
Launius, for one, hopes the manual won’t be locked up again.
“I’d like to see it displayed in a proper way, made available for people to see … but obviously preserved and made available for future generations,” he said.
A photo taken just days before Apollo 11’s liftoff shows Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin practicing in the lunar module simulator, with a timeline book sitting open between them. (NASA photo via Smithsonian NASM)Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin scrawled the lunar module’s coordinates in the timeline book just after the moon landing on July 20, 1969. (Christie’s Photo)Apollo 11’s astronauts checked off steps in the flight plan as they were executed. (Christie’s Photo)
An early computer at Seattle’s Living Computers Museum + Labs. (GeekWire Photo / Kevin Lisota).
— Computers, at least the ones somewhat resembling what we know today, have been around since the mid-20th Century. Seattle is lucky enough to have some of the original gems on display at the Living Computers Museum. While you can take a tour of the museum on your own, there’s only so much you can learn from the brief text on a placard. That’s why the museum is offering a special Curator’s Choice Tour that will feature five of the artifacts housed at the museum, giving participants a much more detailed look at some of the advances made in the history of computers. The tour is open to all ages and takes place June 22.
— Many pieces of legislation about evolving, reducing or removing carbon-based energy are making their way through government. In Washington, proposed legislation would aim to have the state’s energy completely carbon-free by 2045. Making those changes will involve the cooperation of many sectors, but the tech sector, in particular, has a lot to add. Discussions about how to make energy cleaner will be featured at the CleanTech Innovation Showcase on June 24. The conference aims to bring together experts in policy, research, and tech to help develop plans for the future.
Here are more highlights from the GeekWire Calendar:
Kit-Build: Clockit!: A workshop about programming SparkFun’s ClockIt kit at The Living Computers Museum + Labs in Seattle; 1:30 to 3 p.m., Saturday, June 22.
ODTUG Kscope 19: A full-day Oracle development conference at The Conference Center at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle; Sunday, June 23.
Seattle Cyber Security Summit: A full-day event addressing multiple topics related to cybersecurity at the Sheraton Grand Seattle in Seattle; Tuesday, June 25.
Apollo 11 Artifact Public Viewing: A chance to learn about the Apollo Mission at The Living Computers Museum + Labs in Seattle; Tuesday, June 25.
Where Is the Cannabis Biz Going?: A panel about the progress of the cannabis business and how new companies might be able to get involved Create 33 in Seattle; 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, June 25.
LGBTQ+ Business Founders Panel: A panel featuring LGBTQ+ business owners sharing their experiences at The Riveter in Seattle; 6 to 8 p.m., Tuesday, June 25.
For more upcoming events, check out the GeekWire Calendar, where you can find meetups, conferences, startup events, and geeky gatherings in the Pacific Northwest and beyond. Organizing an event? Submit details here.
Elysian Brewing’s Space Dust IPA will be sporting space-themed labels this summer. (Elysian Brewing Photo via Museum of Flight)
Want a little space history in your beer? Or soda pop? Or chocolate? Seattle brands are banding together to mark the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 anniversary, with the Museum of Flight leading the charge.
For instance, take Elysium Brewing Co.’s Space Dust IPA, one of the Seattle brewery’s standards: This summer, Space Dust bottles will be sporting a series of three Apollo 11 labels celebrating the mission’s liftoff, moonwalk and splashdown in July 1969.
If your tastes run more toward the softer side, check out the collectible Apollo 11 labels that’ll be part of Jones Soda’s 50th-anniversary lineup:
Jones Soda is putting Apollo moon mission labels on its bottles in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing. (Jones Soda Co. via Museum of Flight)Seattle Chocolate’s Moon Rocks truffle bar features a spacey label. (Seattle Chocolate Illustration / Jessica Allen)
Seattle Chocolate is putting a flag-waving moonwalker on the label of its Moon Rocks Truffle Bar, made of milk chocolate with bits of popping candy. The illustration is by Rhode Island artist Jessica Allen.
Taco Time Northwest will be putting a connect-the-dots astronaut and other space themes on its bags for kids’ meals this summer, while Molly Moon’s Homemade Ice Cream will be featuring a Summer of Space Sundae during the month of July. (With a name like Molly Moon, would you expect anything less?)
In addition to space-themed treats, there’ll be Summer of Space deals at Seattle-area establishments ranging from Daniel’s Broiler and the Four Seasons Hotel to IFly Seattle and Columbia Center’s Sky View Observatory.
Lego’s minifigure recreation of the Apollo 11 lunar landing comes with a moonscape. (Lego Photo)
That’s one giant heap of Lego bricks: To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, the Lego Group is unveiling a 1,087-piece building set that recreates the mission’s Eagle lunar module.
The Lego Creator Expert NASA Apollo 11 Lunar Lander model, developed in cooperation with NASA, consists of an ascent stage with a detailed interior, plus a descent stage with a ladder and hatches that open.
Two astronaut minifigures are included in the kit, along with a depiction of the lunar surface complete with a crater, moon footprints and a U.S. flag.
In a news release, the company said the $99.99 set will be exclusively available at Lego stores and via the Lego Shop website beginning June 1.
The lunar lander set complements Lego’s 1,969-piece Saturn V rocket building kit, which was released in 2017. Lego also has produced a “Women of NASA” set of minifigures honoring four women pioneers of America’s space effort.
“We have been champions of the awe and wonder of space exploration through playful building for almost as long as the world’s celebration of the first moon landing,” said Michael McNally, senior director of brand relations for Lego Systems.
He noted that there have been “countless stories of engineers, scientists, astronauts and roboticists who point to their experiences with Lego building as the reason they are engaged in their current careers.”
“We hope that our ongoing commitment to space-themed play materials will inspire future generations to help us continue exploring,” McNally said.
One of Lego’s newly released kits features NASA’s heavy-lift Space Launch System rocket. (Lego Photo)
Lego is also unveiling seven new Lego City Mars Exploration building sets, inspired by NASA’s planned missions to explore the moon and the Red Planet.
The sets provide the pieces for a miniature space shuttle, complete with satellite and wrench-wielding astronaut; a Mars rover with crane and accompanying equipment; a collection of 14 space-themed minifigures, including astronauts, a botanist and a personal trainer; a Mars research shuttle with mini-rover; a lunar habitat with three modular compartments and a shuttle; an 837-piece kit featuring NASA’s Space Launch System rocket; and a 1,055-piece kit for building a rocket assembly facility with transport crawler.
Prices for those building sets range from $9.99 (for the shuttle and satellite) to $149.99 (for the rocket assembly facility).
Books about the moon can help get you in the proper mood to see the “Destination Moon” exhibit at Seattle’s Museum of Flight. (GeekWire Photo / Alan Boyle)
In the 50 years since Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong left humanity’s first bootprint on the moon, that “one small step” has launched one giant load of books.
Basketfuls of books about space are now hitting store shelves — not only to mark the golden anniversary of that first moon landing, but also to provide the context for a renewed focus on lunar exploration.
Whether you’re looking for an Apollo book you can read to your kids, an award-winning sci-fi novel about alternate space history, or up-to-date management tips gleaned from the early space effort, we’ve got you covered. Here are 18 recently published (or updated) books that are well-suited for this year’s summer of space, plus a couple of bonus picks.
All about Apollo
Nonfiction authors have been recounting the tale of America’s moonshots since “Of a Fire on the Moon” and “The Right Stuff,” but these books bring fresh perspective to the decades-old saga. We’ve also included a couple of classics that are getting fresh exposure for the 50th anniversary.
American Moonshot: John F. Kennedy and the Great Space Race: Why did we choose to go to the moon? Historian Douglas Brinkley tells the story of the space race with President Kennedy at its center. The focus isn’t so much on the astronauts’ “right stuff,” but on the politics that motivated the moonshots — yielding insights that could apply to the current space policy debate as well.
“Apollo: A Graphic Guide to Mankind’s Greatest Mission.” (Abrams Image)
Apollo: A Graphic Guide to Mankind’s Greatest Mission: In this compact volume, designer Zack Scott provides a visual tour of the Apollo missions in muted shades of brown and blue, black and gray. It’s chock-full of facts and figures, plus infographics that give you a better sense of where America’s moon explorers went, and how they got there. Bonus pick: There’s also a graphic novel about the first moon mission, titled “Apollo.”
First on the Moon: The Apollo 11 50th Anniversary Experience: Looking for an Apollo coffee-table book that’s more than just pretty pictures? Rod Pyle combines the iconic images of the Space Age with facsimiles of historic documents (including the statement that President Richard Nixon would have issued if the Apollo 11 astronauts didn’t survive). Pyle weaves a narrative that takes the Apollo 11 story up to the present, supplemented by moonwalker Buzz Aldrin’s foreword.
Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man’s First Journey to the Moon: We’re already past the 50th anniversary of 1968’s round-the-moon voyage, but it’s still worth taking note of Robert Kurson’s book, which has just come out in paperback. Apollo 8 was arguably the mission that put America on track to win the Space Race. The tale isn’t as well-known as the Apollo 11 saga, however, and that unfamiliarity adds to the novelistic appeal of “Rocket Men.”
Shoot for the Moon: The Space Race and the Extraordinary Voyage of Apollo 11: If you’re looking for inside stories about the buildup and execution of the Apollo 11 mission, Wild West historian James Donovan brings the goods. “Shoot for the Moon” scored a priceless book blurb from none other than Apollo 11 command module pilot Mike Collins, who said, “This is the best book on Apollo that I have ever read.”
Carrying the Fire: An Astronaut’s Journeys: I’m assuming that Collins was too modest to tout his Apollo-centric autobiography, “Carrying the Fire,” which was first published in 1974 and is being reissued with an updated preface for Apollo 11’s 50th anniversary. Bonus picks: For previously published perspectives on Apollo, check out “First Man,” James R. Hansen’s biography of Neil Armstrong; “No Dream Is Too High,” Buzz Aldrin’s latest memoir; and “A Man on the Moon,” Andrew Chaikin’s classic history of Project Apollo (with a new 50th-anniversary afterword).
Mostly about the moon
These books that take a wider-angle view of the moon itself, while touching more tangentially on the Apollo effort.
“Moon: An Illustrated History.” (Sterling)
Moon: An Illustrated History: Astrobiologist David Warmflash organizes his review of 100 milestones in lunar history based on chronology, page by page, starting 4.5 million years ago with the moon’s formation and ending in anticipation of a “Moon Village” by 2044. With 100 illustrations, the book would fit right in on a coffee table but is compact enough to sit on a nightstand.
The Book of the Moon: A Guide to Our Closest Neighbor: After laying out the basic facts about the moon in astronomy and geology, this handbook by British space scientist Maggie Aderin-Pocock focuses on observing the moon and understanding its place in the world’s cultures — including art, poems and folk tales about the moon.
To the moon and beyond
Learn how the Apollo legacy lives on through new space initiatives.
“Space 2.0: How Private Spaceflight, a Resurgent NASA and International Partners Are Creating a New Space Age.” (BenBella Books)
Space 2.0: How Private Spaceflight, a Resurgent NASA and International Partners Are Creating a New Space Age: In this survey of the new space frontier, Rod Pyle turns his attention to the leaders of the commercial space industry, including billionaires Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson and Elon Musk. “Space 2.0” also tracks the resurgence of White House interest in missions to the moon, as well as China’s moon ambitions and the thorny question of space property rights.
The Case for Space: How the Revolution in Spaceflight Opens Up a Future of Limitless Possibility: Rocket scientist Robert Zubrin is the president of the Mars Society, but he has a plan for exploring and settling the moon as well as a plan for the Red Planet. In fact, it seems that he has a plan for everything — including mining asteroids, colonizing the outer solar system and sending “Noah’s Ark Eggs” to other star systems. The last 85 pages serve as a manifesto of sorts, answering the question “Why go to space?”
The past, present and future of space exploration, told in terms that kids can understand. Age recommendations are provided by the publishers.
“Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11.” (Simon & Schuster)
Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11: On one level, Brian Floca’s “Moonshot” is a picture book suitable for reading to the little one on your lap. But there aren’t many books for 4-year-olds with detailed diagrams showing how a Saturn V rocket is put together. As children grow, they’re likely to get more out of the story. This 50th-anniversary edition of a book originally published in 2009 has been expanded to include more about the astronauts’ experiences during the mission, and about the people behind the scenes who helped make Apollo a success. (Ages 4 and up.)
The Space Race: The Journey to the Moon and Beyond: Science journalist Sarah Cruddas leaves no stone unturned in this survey of the world’s space efforts. There are special shoutouts to the space program’s women trailblazers, and you’ll even find a spread about the billionaire rivalry between SpaceX’s Elon Musk and Blue Origin’s Jeff Bezos. Cruddas has scheduled an appearance at the Museum of Flight on June 23. (Ages 6 to 9.)
Hey-ho, to Mars We’ll Go: A Space-Age Version of ‘The Farmer in the Dell’:A sing-along book about Mars exploration? Believe it! Author Susan Lendroth teams up with illustrator Bob Kolar on a colorful book that offers new verses to the classic “Farmer in the Dell,” starting with “The rocket’s on the pad.” But wait, there’s more: Each page has a snippet of prose that explains the science behind the children’s verse in kid-friendly language. (Ages 4 to 8.)
Space with a twist
Out of this world, and out of the ordinary.
“The Calculating Stars.” (Tor)
The Calculating Stars: The first book in Mary Robinette Kowal’s “Lady Astronaut” trilogy starts with the science-fiction premise that a catastrophic cosmic impact forces humanity to make the leap into space, starting in the 1950s — with a woman emerging as a leading light. This month the novel won a Nebula Award.
Heroes of the Space Age:The third book on this list by overachieving author Rod Pyle serves as a “Profiles in Courage” for the space set, focusing on the life stories of eight American and Russian pioneers. Yuri Gagarin, John Glenn, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin are on the list, along with legendary flight director Gene Kranz, but there are also lesser-known figures such as Apollo 12’s Pete Conrad, Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova and computer scientist Margaret Hamilton.
Science journalist Andrew Chaikin and Industrial Light and Magic chief creative offer John Knoll try unsuccessfully to get the demo off the ground at Build. (GeekWire Photo / Todd Bishop)
The opening demo at Microsoft’s Build conference was supposed to be a real showstopper, and ultimately it did stop the show — but not in the way that Microsoft, Epic Games and Industrial Light and Magic had hoped.
An unspecified technical glitch kept Industrial Light and Magic chief creative officer John Knoll and science journalist Andrew Chaikin from using the HoloLens 2 headsets to recreate the Apollo 11 moon landing in mixed reality.
As Chaikin said before walking off the stage, “It seems that doing a live demo is actually harder than landing on the moon.”
But a video of their rehearsal has now surfaced online, thanks to Variety, which had been tracking the plans for the demo and prepared a giant article with the full backstory on how the demo came to be. The collaboration is part of a partnership between Microsoft and Epic Games, marking a truce between the companies.
“All had worked out well during multiple rehearsals over the last few days,” Variety’s Janko Roettgers wrote. “But when Knoll and science journalist and ‘Man on the Moon’ author Andrew Chaikin were set to go on stage on Monday, the demo just didn’t run. Microsoft stalled by extending its pre-show ImagineCup competition until the show’s moderator couldn’t think of any more questions to ask. Then Knoll and Chaikin went on stage, giving it one more go — and the mixed-reality overlays simply refused to appear.”
If the demo had worked as planned, HoloLens users (and those who were watching the display screens at the Microsoft Build conference) would have seen virtual models of the Saturn V rocket, plus its Apollo capsule and lunar module, float and spin around the stage as Chaikin and Knoll narrated each stage of the 1969 moon mission. At the climax, a patch of simulated lunar terrain blossomed on stage, and a virtual Neil Armstrong climbed down the lunar module’s ladder to take his “one small step.”
Watch the runthrough video above to see how it would have unfolded.
Mark Armstrong, one of the sons associated with Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong, checks out the spaceship that will his father rode to the celestial satellite at the Museum of Flight’ {h|t|s i9000|ersus} “ Destination Moon” exhibit. (GeekWire Photo / Alan Boyle)
“ Destination Moon, ” the traveling exhibit making the debut at Seattle’ s Art gallery of Flight this month, places some of the greatest treasures of the Space Competition on display. But if you know where to {appear|appearance|seem}, you’ ll also spot small treasures that shed light on the life associated with Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong.
For example , take {a near|a close up|a shut} look at the picture of two as well as a boat, hanging over the black-and-white TV in what looks like a wood-paneled living room. It’ s a duplication of a portrait that astronaut Wally Schirra commissioned as a joke.
The painting shows Armstrong in the company of another Apollo astronaut, Pete Conrad, who ran the {vessel|motorboat|ship} aground because the two of them obtained distracted by some water-skiing horseplay.
Neil Armstrong’ {h|t|s i9000|ersus} 55-year-old son, Mark, says the particular episode taught his father plus Conrad a valuable lesson: “ However, best pilots in the world can {find yourself|turn out|finish up} grounded if they’ re not really paying attention, ” he told me throughout a sneak preview of the exhibit.
Mark Armstrong, one of astronaut Neil Armstrong’ s sons, checks {away|out there} a display that includes a reproduction of an artwork featuring his father and {other|many other} astronaut Pete Conrad. (GeekWire {Picture|Photograph} / Alan Boyle)
You’ ll find {numerous|several|a lot of} such personal touches surrounding the particular centerpiece of “ Destination Celestial satellite: The Apollo 11 Mission” — the Columbia command module that will Armstrong and the two other Apollo 11 astronauts, Buzz Aldrin plus Michael Collins, rode to lunar orbit and back in July 1969.
In one corner from the exhibit hall, there’ s Neil Armstrong’ s “ short-fat” {airline flight|trip|air travel} suit, festooned with zippers, Velcro fabric and NASA’ s logo design. The only problem with the suit is that its legs were a little too brief, and the waist was a little as well roomy. After Armstrong retired through NASA, it became one of their favorite coveralls to wear while focusing on his farm in Ohio. You are able to still see flecks of color on the pant legs.
Nearby are the fragments of the {initial|authentic|unique|first|primary} 1903 Wright Flyer, laid out {inside a|within a|in the} display case. The Air Force {requested|questioned|inquired} Armstrong to carry the precious bits of fabric plus wood to the moon and back again — and produced him an offer he couldn’ {to|capital t|big t} refuse. Mark Armstrong tells the storyplot in this special episode of the GeekWire Podcast:
A nearby monitor lets museumgoers swipe and {faucet|touch} their way through a virtual 3-D model of the spacecraft’ s {inside|internal|indoor|inner surface}.
The Smithsonian can also be letting the Museum of {Airline flight|Trip|Air travel} display Aldrin’ s spacesuit {hand protection|mitts} — as well as his golden {headgear|head protection} visor, which reflected Armstrong’ {h|t|s i9000|ersus} image in what’ s usually considered the particular best-known picture from the Apollo eleven moonwalk . A giant version from the same picture, in black and white {around the|within the|for the|in the|over the} front page of The New York {Occasions|Periods|Instances|Moments|Situations}, is posted on the wall at the rear of the visor.
Seattle adds spice to the space display
“ Destination Moon” has already made stopovers in Houston, St . Louis and Pittsburgh, yet as far as the Museum of {Airline flight is|Trip is|Air travel is} concerned, it’ s best to {become|end up being} last: The Smithsonian’ s artifacts will be on display here during the real 50th anniversary of the Apollo eleven moon landing on July twenty. That adds an extra bit of timeliness to the show in Seattle.
Seattle’ s version from the show is special for another cause: The Museum of Flight adds to your home its own extensive collection of space artifacts to the mix, including full-scale {architectural|executive|anatomist} mockups of Boeing’ s lunar rover and the buglike Apollo lunar module .
There’ {h|t|s i9000|ersus} also a set of consoles from NASA’ s old Mission Control, a good Apollo twelve moon rock which was lent to the museum, and scads of toys, banners and souvenirs from Apollo’ s heyday. The particular Seattle show even gives the Soviets a share of the spotlight, along with displays featuring a replica of the Sputnik 1 satellite television , a Resurs 500 space capsule and a spacesuit {designed for|created for} Moscow’ s early cosmonauts.
Fifty years after the celestial satellite landing, many of the items from those times look like antiques. The Apollo success kit — complete with a wicked machete, three pairs of groovy ’ 60s sunglasses and two containers of sunscreen — is clunky enough to fit right in a flea market sale.
That clunkiness is part of the exhibit’ s appeal, Mark Armstrong {stated|mentioned}.
“ If you take a look at all these pieces of technology — which usually seem quite primitive, but had been very effective — I think that really displays what can be achieved by hundreds of thousands of individuals when they all work together toward a typical goal, ” he said.
‘ Ambassadors for {area|room} exploration’
Much is promoting since Neil Armstrong took that certain small step on the moon — a step that he hoped would {symbolize|stand for|signify} a giant leap for humanity. A lot has changed even since Neil Armstrong passed away this year , just as the commercial {area|room} revolution was picking up steam. In 1969, the idea that billionaires would be able to {account|finance} their own space programs might have seemed as outlandish as the idea that simply no humans would set foot {around the|within the|for the|in the|over the} moon after Apollo 17 within 1972.
Mark Armstrong said the surviving Apollo astronauts and their families see the 50th wedding anniversary as a time for looking forward as well as for looking back.
“ We all feel the same way, ” he said. “ We {seem like|feel as if|think that} we are ambassadors for space {search|pursuit}, and we are thrilled to be {a part of|a portion of|a section of|a component of|an element of} bringing that excitement to the next era. Hopefully we can ignite in them exactly the same kind of passion that we felt whenever we were younger. ”
I asked Mark Armstrong exactly what his father might have said {in case|when|in the event that} he were present for the 50th anniversary.
“ {What ever|No matter what|Whichever} he would have said, ” Armstrong replied, “ it would have been ideal. ”
“ Destination Moon” was developed {from the|with the|by} Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition {Support|Services|Assistance|Program|Provider} and the National Air and {Area|Room} Museum. In Seattle, the exhibit is made possible through the support associated with Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos, {Later on|May well} Clark, Bruce R. McCaw {Family members|Loved ones|Household} Foundation, the Charles and Mack Simonyi Fund for Arts plus Sciences, John and Susann Norton, and Gregory D. and Jennifer Walston Johnson. Transportation services {with regard to|regarding|intended for|to get|pertaining to} “ Destination Moon” are provided simply by FedEx.
