In celebration of the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11’s lunar landing and humankind first setting foot on the moon, Google has created an interactive Google Doodle that takes users to the moon.
Thursday’s Google Doodle, created in partnership with NASA, allows users to take a journey to the moon and back featuring a short illustrated video narrated by Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins.
Collins walks viewers through from the initial launch on the morning of July 16, 1969, all the way to the Apollo 11 crew landing in the Pacific Ocean on July 24, 1969. Apollo 11 arrived on the surface of the moon on July 20, 1969. Neil Armstrong took one small step and became the first human to set foot on the moon the next day.
There’s been celebrations all week for the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11. On Tuesday, CBS streamed the original news coverage of the moon landing. Collins and fellow Apollo 11 astronaut, Buzz Aldrin, also appeared on a live broadcast for NASA on Tuesday, where they reminisced on the mission and held a question and answer session.
The Washington Monument even got in on the 50th anniversary celebrations: on Tuesday, the monument was lit up to look like the Apollo 11 mission rocket.
This isn’t the first time Google has honored the moon landing. Google previously had a Doodle for Apollo 11 for the 40th anniversary in 2009 and once before in 2005. According to Google, more than 2,000 doodles have been created around the world since 2000.
Google’s blog post about the Doodle reads, “Space exploration continues to this day, with milestones such as the International Space Station and plans for a mission to Mars. Most recently, NASA’s Artemis program—named for Apollo’s sister in Greek mythology—aims to bring the first woman to the moon.”
According to NASA, astronauts will be back on the moon once again by 2024, the first time humans set foot on the moon since 1972. NASA will focus on commercial resupply and commercial crew programs for the new lunar missions.
“When we return to the Moon, we will be building upon the work of the hundreds of thousands of people who worked on Apollo and have since advanced human spaceflight,” NASA’s post says.
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