Where to Celebrate Apollo 11 Moon Landing

One small step for man.

This is the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing - the launch on July 16th and the history-making first human steps on the moon four days later, on July 20th..

The historic event being celebrated with multiple events in NYC all week, weekend and beyond.

Here’s where you can see actual moon rocks, meet astronauts, astrophysicists and geologists, and learn more about the past and future of space travel, including Mars and beyond.

Find our more about Apollo 11 and other space missions on the NASA website.

New York Public Library

Three events at branches in Manhattan, Staten Island and Bronx:

Apollo 11: A Moon Landing 50th Anniversary Event
Tuesday, June 16 | 3 PM
Riverside Library, Manhattan

Moon Landing: 50th Anniversary Celebration
Saturday, July 20 | 3:30 PM
St. George Library Center, Staten Island

Moon Landing Viewing and Craft
Tuesday, July 23 | 2:30 PM
Allerton Library, Bronx

American Museum of Natural History:

The Museum’s SpaceFest event is Saturday, July 20th - the Apollo 11 anniversary, for a week  - through Sunday, July 28th.

Part of the Museum’s 150th anniversary celebration, SpaceFest includes family-friendly presentations, performances, and hands-on activities about the wonders of the Moon, Mars, and beyond.

Be sure to visit the three moon rocks from Apollo 14, 15, 16 and 17, housed in cases in the Museum’s Rose Center for Earth and Space and in the Arthur Ross Hall of Meteorites, which was recently revitalized and reopened with new models from recent specimen retrieval missions to asteroids and comets, including a newly acquired lunar meteorite sample. 

AMNH is at the forefront of developing scientifically accurate visualizations of space, first through its atlas of the known cosmos, the Digital Universe, and most recently through the use of a new software called OpenSpace. It was created by an AMNH team with the support of NASA and in collaboration with institutions including Sweden’s Linköping University, New York University, and the University of Utah,

OpenSpace allows the use of authentic data collected by space missions and generated by computer simulations to be presented live across a range of platforms. 

The open source software is used by a growing network of planetariums and natural history museums across the country and around the world, but the Hayden Planetarium at AMNH has the best, most sophisticated technology using it.

Also -

To The Moon by Laurie Anderson and Hsin-Chien Huang

Saturday, July 20–Sunday, July 28, 10 am–5:30 pm (last entry at 5 pm)

Immerse yourself in this limited-engagement presentation of To The Moon, a virtual reality experience by artist Laurie Anderson and co-creator Hsin-Chien Huang. To The Moon uses images and tropes from Greek mythology, literature, science, science-fiction space movies, and politics to create an imaginary and dark new version of the Moon.

During the 15-minute experience, the viewer is shot out from Earth, walks on the surface of the Moon, glides through space debris, flies through DNA skeletons, and is lifted up and then tossed off of a lunar mountain.

• Free for Members or with Museum admission
• Starlight Cafe, First Floor

Additional SpaceFest events on July 20th include:

 Space Talks:

• Director of Astrovisualization Carter Emmart presents a model of the Apollo 11 flight and landing on the moon. Presented in collaboration with NASA’s OpenSpace. (Noon)
• Astrophysicist Jackie Faherty discusses the latest findings from the Gaia data set (1 pm)
• C. Alex Young, associate director for Science in the Heliophysics Science Divison at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center presents past, present, and future missions to our Sun (3 pm)
• In the Hayden Planetarium Space Theater, catch CAPCOM GO! The Apollo Story, an immersive, historical documentary that showcases the achievements of the Apollo program and what it took to put the first human on the Moon. Then visit the landing sites of select Apollo missions and explore Mars using NASA’s OpenSpace visualization software with the Museum’s Director of Astrovisualization Carter Emmart (5 pm)

SpaceFest events on July 21 include:

To The Moon Artist Talkback with Laurie Anderson

Sunday, July 21, 2 pm

Artist Laurie Anderson joins Museum astrophysicist Jackie Faherty for a conversation about Anderson’s new immersive virtual reality experience, To The Moon, co-created with Hsin-Chien Huang. To the Moon makes its U.S. premiere at the American Museum of Natural History from July 20 through July 28.

Anderson will discuss why she likes to work in virtual reality, the motivations behind this piece, and her creative process. She will also take questions from the audience.

• Free for Members or with Museum admission
• Enter at 77st Street Entrance

See next page for

Apollo 11 50th Anniversary Events

 at the Intrepid Museum

in Times Square

and New York Hall of Science