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In a little more than an hour, the Eagle will have landed. And at 10:56 P.M. (Eastern Daylight Time), Neil Armstrong will set foot on the moon. Both of these events took place 40 years ago, of course, but they will unfold again across the Web today, to the delight of those nostalgic for the first manned moon landing in 1969 and those too young to remember.

We Choose the Moon, a Web site presented by the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum, is perhaps the slickest of the Internet entities providing a virtual replay of the mission as it occurred 40 years ago, with audio, animations, and transcripts from the mission's communications. We Choose the Moon allows users to essentially hover above the Apollo 11 crew, watching their progress toward the lunar surface and eavesdropping on their exchanges with mission control.

ApolloPlus40, a project from Nature News, rolls out highlights from the mission in a dedicated Twitter stream. (Scientific American is part of the Nature Publishing Group.) ReliveApollo11, a feed from the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, provides a similar service.

For those who can't wait until tonight to experience the lunar landing and first moon walk, whether it's for the first time or for old time's sake, NASA has released recently restored footage [below] of the day Apollo 11 made history. And for more on the breakthrough mission, see our In-Depth Report on Apollo 11's 40th anniversary, featuring Armstrong's recollection of the landing itself, a conversation with Buzz Armstrong, and a look at the Apollo missions that never were.

Photo of Aldrin on the lunar surface, with the Eagle in the background: NASA

4 Comments

1. 1. Albert Reingewirtz 05:47 PM 7/20/09

   Great! Let's get back to earth now. NASA wants to go to Mars! I hear "a giant sucking sound" money for medical research, climate, ecology.... going to Mars wasted just for the glory when we have millions with no medical insurance, no income.... It is nuts!

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2. 2. al 01:25 PM 7/21/09

   Never again, please. Lots of politics, very little science, at a huge expense.
   (May other worlds remain free from human contamination.) Manned space exploration is an irresponsably unaffordable extravaganza against the backdrop of the current economic crisis. (BTW mostly pilots were sent to the moon, few scientists, only one geologist.)

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3. 3. tim57 in reply to Albert Reingewirtz 05:11 PM 7/21/09

   If Obama wants to spend money (trillions) already, I say lets alocate some of the already promised funds to the space program, I mean, maybe in the process, we'll figure out something we never expected (never even know we needed), as had happened before with the first lunar landing.

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4. 4. cobra 07:57 PM 8/29/09

   It's what humankind does best, explore and conquer. Left on this planet humans will forever, pollute, mess things up, starve millions , rip off billions, we will always fall short of our own expectations. That's what we are, that's why we are here, so get over it and spend absolutely billions on space and go where our ancestors expect us to go. We'll learn more out there than staying here and messing up our own backyard.

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