The story takes us back to 1968. Inside America’s space program, engineers worried that President John F. Kennedy’s stirring promise to go to the moon before 1970 would be unredeemed — or, worse, that it would be fulfilled by the Soviet Union.
The colossal Saturn V rocket remained unproven, while a lunar-landing craft faced an array of technological obstacles. There were so many question marks. No human had ever ridden a rocket as powerful as the Saturn V. No human had ever left Earth’s orbit. No human had ever traveled through interplanetary space to be captured by the gravity of another world. And certainly no human had ever done all this and returned home like a space-age Odysseus.
Three extraordinary astronauts volunteered for this risky business, each combining the nervy skill of an ace pilot with the disciplined brain of an advanced scientist or engineer. Of all the millions of people over thousands of years who had looked up and imagined themselves floating among the stars, these three men were the first to experience it.
And then the Earth appeared in a magnificent blue and white over the moon’s horizon. For the first time in human history they witnessed…Earthrise
Join us as we relive a time in human history when the impossible was ours.
Join us on the south lawn immediately following the program to view the Moon, planets and deep space nebula through our robotic observatory telescopes. (weather permitting)
Our Mission
Our mission is to advance scholastic literacy of future generations with informal STEM education focused on NASA missions, astronomy, and space exploration; and to foster scientific curiosity and advance science literacy to cultivate and nurture the next generation of leaders.
