When you think of July, fireworks, the Dog Days of Summer, and National Ice Cream Month may come to mind. National Moon Day, observed annually on July 20, is often overlooked.
What is National Moon Day?
Moon Day is in honor of the historical landing of Apollo 11 in July of 1969.
For some, it seems just like yesterday we heard those famous words from Neil Armstrong, “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
On July 20, 1969, Apollo landed the first humans, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, on the moon. Six hours after landing, Neil Armstrong stepped onto the lunar surface and spent two and a half hours outside the spacecraft. Aldrin spent less time, but together they collected 47.5 pounds of lunar material to bring back to Earth. This changed history forever!
Five Cool Facts about Apollo 11 and the Historic Moon Landing
- Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were not alone! Michael Collins, the third astronaut on the Apollo 11 mission, was the pilot. He must have drawn the short straw because he had to orbit the moon while his friends got to gather moon rocks.
- There is not much footage of this historic event. While NASA seemed to think of everything, 11 tapes from the moon landing were lost, leaving very little footage of a major event!
- Some of the systems malfunctioned during the landing so Armstrong had to manually land the aircraft. If it had taken him 23 seconds longer he would have run out of fuel. That’s too close for comfort!
- Aldrin and Armstrong were so excited about their moonwalk mission, earlier in the day they called Mission Control to ask permission to skip their scheduled nap. Permission was granted.
- The three Apollo astronauts were required to spend 21 days in an Airstream trailer just in case they had contacted some sort of moon disease. They didn’t know there was no life on the moon in 1969!
Ways to Celebrate Moon Day
- Read the Fuddlebrook book, The Case of the Vanishing Moon. Kids will be delighted as they learn a robber is NOT stealing pieces of the moon! Why does it appear as if some of the moon is missing? Don’t forget the fun experiments/activities at the end of the book!
- Find a person who remembers this historic event. How old were they? Did they see it on television? Interview them.
- Build your own telescope.
- Make some moon sand. Various recipes are found online.
- Pack a picnic full of moon themed snacks. Moon Pie anyone?
The moon is the Earth’s only natural satellite and was formed 4.6 billion years ago. There have been twelve astronauts that have walked on the moon since 1969.
So let’s celebrate one of the Earth’s greatest phenomena!