On the July 20 anniversary date of the first moon landing, the museum will present a showing of a Smithsonian Channel documentary, The Day We Walked on the Moon. This program tells the story of how we got to the moon through spectacular footage and interviews with key figures in the Apollo 11 mission, including astronaut Michael Collins and iconic Flight Director Gene Kranz. The video will start at 10 a.m. in the STEM Lecture Hall and run continuously though most of the day along with moon-related table activities. This screening is possible due to the Museum’s Smithsonian Affiliation. At various times throughout the day, NASA TV coverage of the Apollo anniversary will be shown in in the ViewSpace Theater.
The museum will host a public meeting of The Albuquerque Astronomical Society in the planetarium on the evening of the 20th with doors reopening at 5:30 p.m. At 7 p.m., a local resident who worked on space technologies will share memories of early space flight. Jim Mayo collaborated with NASA astronauts to develop optics for the Gemini and Apollo programs and is currently Chief Optics Engineer at Tau Technologies. The anniversary celebration will conclude with light refreshments.