It’s the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11’s launch to the moon.
Astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins blasted off from Kennedy Space Center on the morning of July 16, 1969.
Peoria Riverfront Museum’s Renae Kerrigan says there was important reason they launched from Merritt Island, Florida.
“The closer you are to the Equator, the faster the Earth is turning there, you acutally get a little bit of speed to your launch. It’s a little easier to launch near the Equator than to launch up north,” Kerrigan said.
She tells WMBD’s Greg and Dan, it took 5-percent of the United States’ federal budget to fund the Apollo 11 program, allowing the U.S. to beat Russia to the Moon in 1969, an amount that NASA has not seen since then.
Kerrigan says it was no small feat getting the Saturn V rocket off the ground.
“It took like a million pounds of fuel. It’s huge. The Saturn V was an enormous machine. We haven’t had a rocket that big ever since.”
Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first to set foot on the Moon on July 21st 1969. Command Module Pilot Michael Collins stayed inside while the other two astronauts walked the Moon’s surface. They returned to Earth safely on July 21.
You can learn about Apollo 11 this weekend at the Peoria Riverfront Museum. Details are HERE.
