To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission to the moon, which launched on July 16, 1969, NASA will hold a live broadcast featuring a retrospective on the historic mission and presentations by the astronauts involved. You can watch the event live on Tuesday, July 16 at 6:15 a.m. PT above.
The celebration will begin with reflections on the mission from astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, who will be reunited at the famous Launch Pad 39A in the Kennedy Space Center from which Apollo 11 blasted off fifty years ago. The event is part of an ongoing celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 launch and moon landing that will run throughout the week.
Along with Neil Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins were the prime crew for the mission, in which Armstrong was the mission commander, Aldrin was the lunar module pilot, and Collins was the command module pilot. On July 16, 1969, Apollo 11 launched, carrying the crew to the moon by July 20. Armstrong and later Aldrin walked on the surface of the moon and Collins stayed aboard the command module Columbia in lunar orbit.
During the broadcast, Aldrin and Collins will reminisce about the mission and hold a question and answer session with Kennedy Center Director Bob Cabana, before visiting the Launch Control Center and Firing Room 1, the place from which the Apollo missions were overseen by ground control. At the Launch Control Center, the astronauts will meet with launch controllers who worked during the Apollo era as well as current launch controllers working on the Artemis mission to the Moon and to Mars. There will also be crew interviews discussing memories of the Apollo mission and what it meant for scientific advancement and for humanity.
The retrospective with the astronauts begins at 6:15 a.m. PT and runs until 11am PT. If you don’t fancy getting up that early, the event will also be replayed later in the day at 11 a.m., 2 p.m., and 6 p.m. PT. In the evening, NASA will stream the documentary In the Shadow of the Moon about the moon landings and the Apollo missions.
For a full schedule of NASA events being livestreamed to celebrate the anniversary, see NASA’s website.
