Apollo Program

NASA Mission Control during the Apollo 11 moonwalk, with the live broadcast from the lunar surface on the screen.

A Wind Storm in Australia Nearly Interrupted the Moon Landing Broadcast

As Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon, radio telescope operators in New South Wales scrambled to receive the live video

The author likes to think the lunar rover's design was informed in part by his father's experience retooling the family station wagon.

From the Family Station Wagon to the Apollo Lunar Rover, My Dad's Engineering Talent Had No Limits

Stricken with polio as an adult, he retired from the military and joined NASA's ingenious design team

Restored Apollo Mission Control Center Brings the Moon Landing Era to Life

Decommissioned in 1992, the site is now open to public tours

Ann Montgomery, lead crew systems engineer during the Apollo program, on the swing arm of the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center with other NASA employees, circa 1970.

At 21, Ann Montgomery Became a Lead Engineer at NASA, Managing the Cameras and Other Crucial Gear Used on the Moon

Montgomery worked closely with the Apollo astronauts to train them to use handheld tools and equipment on the moon

Commander Neil Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins and Lunar Module Pilot Buzz Aldrin, July 24, 1969

How Neil, Buzz and Mike Got Their Workouts in on Their Way to the Moon and Back

To counter the effects of weightlessness, NASA equipped Apollo 11 with an Exer-Genie for isometric exercises

The new app allows users to walk on the moon with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.

The Augmented Reality App That Lets You Experience the Moon Landing

Tied to a new series from the Smithsonian Channel, the app is the closest you can get to being on the moon without time-traveling to 1969

The Museum of the Moon is just one of many events taking place across the United States celebrating the 50th anniversary of landing on the moon.

A Cross-Country Guide to Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Moon Landing

It's been half a century since humankind touched down on the surface of the moon, and we're not done praising the feat

This lunar extravehicular visor assembly, photographed by Cade Martin at the National Air and Space Museum’s Udvar- Hazy Center, was worn by Neil Armstrong on the Moon in July 1969. Armstrong’s helmet visors were designed to protect against hazards, from micrometeoroids to infrared light.

What You Didn't Know About the Apollo 11 Mission

From JFK's real motives to the Soviets' secret plot to land on the Moon at the same time, a new behind-the-scenes view of an unlikely triumph 50 years ago

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We Chose to Go to the Moon

A collection of stories to celebrate the semicentennial of the Apollo 11 mission

The Smithsonian has completed its multi-year conservation project of the Neil Armstrong spacesuit, digitizing the historic Apollo artifact so that soon authentically realized duplicates can be downloaded for study and appreciation.

In Celebration of 50 Years Since the Moon Landing, Neil Armstrong's Spacesuit Set to Return to Public View

Duplicates of the 3D scanned historic Apollo artifact will also tour Major League ballparks this summer

The Apollo 10 Command Module, "Charlie Brown," as seen from the detached Lunar Module, "Snoopy."

A Smithsonian Curator Reflects on Apollo 10, the Mission That Made Landing on the Moon Possible

Fifty years ago, the astronauts who crewed the “dress rehearsal” for Apollo 11 paved the way for history to be made just a couple months later

To all the looney lunar landing deniers and conspiracy theorists out there, NASA has just four words to say: "Apollo: Yes, We Did."

Yes, the United States Certainly DID Land Humans on the Moon

Moon-landing deniers, says space scholar and former NASA chief historian Roger Launius, are full of stuff and nonsense

The Lee Lincoln Scarp, one of the potentially active faults on the Moon.

The Moon Is Slowly Shrinking, Which May Be Causing 'Moonquakes' on Its Surface

Analysis of seismic data collected on the Apollo missions shows the moon is probably tectonically active

Francis Rogallo (above, in 1959 in a wind tunnel at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia) along with his wife Gertrude, originally conceived of their paraglider in the mid-1940s to make aviation more practical and economically available to more aviators.

The Paraglider That NASA Could Have Used, but Didn't, to Bring Astronauts Back to Earth

Francis Rogallo's invention would have brought returning space vehicles in for a runway landing, instead of an ocean splashdown

Jennifer Levasseur from the National Air and Space Museum notes that the museum’s supply of popular astronaut foods is less comprehensive than its collection of rejects. “We only get what they didn’t eat (above: Apollo 17's spiced fruit cereal is now in the collections)."

Rita Rapp Fed America’s Space Travelers

NASA’s food packages now in the collections of the Air and Space Museum tell the story of how a physiologist brought better eating to outer space

An artist's concept of the Axel rover rappelling into a lunar pit.

NASA Considers a Rover Mission to Go Cave Diving on the Moon

The deep caverns and pits that dot the lunar surface could hold clues to the moon's history and perhaps provide shelter for future human exploration

Margaret Hamilton stands next to a stack of program listings from the Apollo Guidance Computer in a photograph taken in 1969.

Margaret Hamilton Led the NASA Software Team That Landed Astronauts on the Moon

Apollo’s successful computing software was optimized to deal with unknown problems and to interrupt one task to take on a more important one

Apollo 14 Astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr. assembles equipment on the lunar surface on February 6, 1971.

Earth’s Oldest Known Rock May Have Been Found on the Moon

Alan Shepard, the first American astronaut in space, collected the rock sample during Apollo 14

Gutenberg Castle in Balzers, Liechtenstein.

Twelve Anniversaries and Events Worth Traveling For in 2019

2019 will mark Singapore's bicentennial, the 500th anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci's death and a total solar eclipse in South America

1960s science fiction illustration of lunar exploration.

The Missions to the Moon That Never Left the Drawing Board

From pioneers of science fiction to the height of the space race, these are the ideas for lunar flight that never launched

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