July 16, 2014

#Apollo45 Where were you when Apollo 11 Landed on the Moon?

In recognition of the 45th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, the first moon landing, everyone is invited to participate in sharing their moon landing stories by uploading them to YouTube and sharing them with the hashtag #Apollo45.

By Joanne Manaster

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This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American

I've shared before my story of being a young girl in Albuquerque, New Mexico and being called in by my mom to watch men walk on the moon. Some much more famous folks than myself have been interviewed about their memories of the first moon landing, a few of which are compiled in this video:

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Longer versions of the interviews are featured on the Apollo45 YouTube channel, which has, as of this writing, 47 videos so far of astronauts, actors, directors, musicians and entrepreneurs providing us their stories!

Today marks the 45th anniversary of date of the liftoff of Apollo 11 from the Earth, and all over social media for the next several days, the Apollo 11 mission is being played out, in sequential time. Just look for #Apollo45 and you're bound to run into them!

Buzz Aldrin (the second man on the moon and the reflection in Neil Armstrong's iconic image from the mission), is spearheading this campaign as one of the most recognizable Earth-to-Space ambassadors. He has been traveling across the world to get us all excited about space exploration once again and promoting his ideas for a Mission to Mars.

If you prefer to reminisce about the early NASA missions through someone else's video rather than creating your own, I highly recommend my favorite movie on the topic, For All Mankind, by director Al Reinert. In fact, I'll be watching it tonight! I've even written about the music for the movie, as composed primarily by Brian Eno, which adds more than just the perfect touch to this incredible movie:

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