NASA invites Apollo 11 astronauts to launch pad for 50th Moon Landing Anniversary
Two Apollo 11 astronauts are returning to the exact spot where they began their journey to the moon 50 years ago. NASA has invited Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins to Kennedy Space Centre’s Launch Complex 39A in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
They will mark the precise moment – 9.32am on July 16 1969 (4.32pm BST) – that their Saturn V rocket departed for humanity’s first moon landing.
Mission commander Neil Armstrong, who took the first lunar footsteps, died in 2012.
The event kicks off eight days of golden anniversary celebrations marking each day of Apollo 11’s voyage.
Also on Tuesday morning, 5,000 model rockets are set to launch simultaneously at the US Space and Rocket Centre in Huntsville, Alabama.
At the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, Armstrong’s newly restored spacesuit will go on display.
