Saint Louis Science Center Opens Special Exhibition, Destination Moon: The Apollo 11 Mission

St. Louis, April 13, 2018 -- ST. LOUIS (April 13, 2018) — On Saturday, April 14, the Saint Louis Science Center opens Destination Moon: The Apollo 11 Mission, a traveling exhibition from the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. The Science Center is one of four museums nationwide – and the only in the Midwest – to host the exhibition, which is being toured by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES). It features the Apollo 11 command module Columbia, as well as 20 artifacts from the historic mission that landed man on the moon. 

Apollo 11 command module Columbia Credit: Photo by Eric Long, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution Astronaut Buzz Aldrin walks on the surface of the moon near the leg of the lunar module Eagle during the Apollo 11 extravehicular activity (EVA). Credit: Photo courtesy of NASA

“The Science Center has been counting down to the opening of this exhibition since the announcement that we were selected more than a year ago, and the excitement in the community is palpable,” said Bert Vescolani, president and CEO of the Science Center. “Space is one of those science topics that tends to have universal appeal, and we believe that sharing the story of space travel through unique national treasures and experiences will help that interest continue to thrive.”

To customize the exhibition for St. Louis, the Science Center has added 8,000 square feet to help set the stage historically for visitors, offer hands-on learning experiences and provide a glimpse at the future of human spaceflight. These additions are exclusive to the Saint Louis Science Center. Highlights include:

• Storefronts built to represent familiar street scenes in St. Louis during the 1960s, including a convenience store, TV and radio repair store, toy store and home décor store, with each window front filled with artifacts.
• A 1960s living room designed to feel like visitors are stepping back in time for an Apollo 11 launch and landing party, including actual historical footage of the landing, party food, books and records and other homey artifacts from that decade.
• A small theater featuring an original short documentary produced by the Science Center about the important role St. Louis played in the Space Race, including McDonnell Aircraft Corporation’s work with NASA on the Mercury and Gemini programs.
• Personal stories from astronauts, engineers who built the spacecraft, Mission Control workers who helped guide the spacecraft and lunar cartographers who mapped the moon’s surface.
• A gantry for guests to walk across and experience the rumble and sounds as they step across to see the Apollo 11 artifacts.
• A full-size command module and lunar module (created by the Science Center) that guests can climb into and simulate their own mission or direct these spacecraft from mission control.
• Space tools that allow visitors to experience what it would have been like to work on the surface of the moon, just like the astronauts did.
• Interactive activities that allow guests to explore the future of human spaceflight and upcoming missions planned for taking humans back into space.

Vescolani said, “St. Louis played a vital role in the Space Race, with the city being home to the development of Mercury and Gemini technology and components of the Apollo program, and we felt it was crucial to tell that story.”

On July 24, 1969, Apollo 11 met President John F. Kennedy’s 1961 challenge of “landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth.” The exhibition explores what led the United States to accept this challenge and how the resulting 953,054-mile voyage to the moon and back was accomplished just eight years after the program was authorized. Destination Moon examines the mission and sheds light on some of the more than 400,000 people employed in NASA programs who worked through the trials, tragedies and triumphs of the 20 missions from 1961 to 1969 before Apollo 11.

The tour stops are: Houston Space Center, Heinz History Center and The Museum of Flight. This tour marks the first time Columbia has left the National Air and Space Museum since the museum opened to the public in 1976.                      
                                                                                               

In addition to the Apollo 11 command module Columbia, the exhibition will feature:

• The extravehicular visor Buzz Aldrin while on the surface of the moon. It fit over his clear pressure-bubble helmet.
• Aldrin’s extravehicular gloves that have an outer, cut-resistant shell of Chromel-R fabric across the hands to prevent fatal air leaks caused by handling sharp objects and gauntlets to protect against solar heating. The blue fingertips were made of silicone rubber to provide more sensitivity for touching.
• One of two rucksacks filled with equipment to help the crew survive for up to 48 hours in the event of an emergency landing somewhere on Earth. The kit includes three water containers, a radio beacon and spare battery, three pairs of sunglasses, six packages of desalting chemicals, a seawater desalter kit, two survival lights, a machete and two bottles of sunscreen.
• A star chart that shows the positions of the sun, moon and stars at the time Apollo 11 was scheduled to leave Earth’s orbit and head for the moon.

 “Destination Moon will help visitors of all ages to appreciate the accomplishment of the moon landing and all of the work that went into making it happen. We hope the exhibition inspires our guests to think about what is next in space discovery. Perhaps one of them will play a role in exploring Mars and beyond,” Vescolani said.

Destination Moon: The Apollo 11 Mission is made possible by the support of Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos, Joe Clark, Bruce R. McCaw Family Foundation, the Charles and Lisa Simonyi Fund for Arts and Sciences, John and Susann Norton, and Gregory D. and Jennifer Walston Johnson. Transportation services for Destination Moon are provided by FedEx. The St. Louis presentation of Destination Moon is funded by The Boeing Company and The William T. Kemper Foundation.

Saint Louis Science Center
The mission of the Saint Louis Science Center is to ignite and sustain lifelong science and technology learning. Named a Smithsonian Institution Affiliate in 2016, the Saint Louis Science Center features more than 700 interactive exhibits, as well as a five-story OMNIMAX® Theater, Boeing Hall and the James S. McDonnell Planetarium. For more information about the Saint Louis Science Center, please visit slsc.org. 

National Air and Space Museum
The National Air and Space Museum building on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., is located at Sixth Street and Independence Avenue S.W. The museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center is located in Chantilly, Va., near Washington Dulles International Airport. Attendance at both buildings combined exceeded 9 million in 2016, making it the most visited museum in America. The museum’s research, collections, exhibitions and programs focus on aeronautical history, space history and planetary studies. Both buildings are open from 10 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. every day (closed Dec. 25).

Visit online at airandspace.si.edu/DestinationMoon.

Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES)

SITES has been sharing the wealth of Smithsonian collections and research programs with millions of people outside Washington, D.C., for more than 65 years. SITES connects Americans to their shared cultural heritage through a wide range of exhibitions about art, science, and history, which are shown wherever people live, work and play. For exhibition description and tour schedules, visit sites.si.edu.

Attachments

• Columbia
• AS11-40-5903HR

Mindy Peirce
Saint Louis Science Center
314-286-4683
[email protected]