NASA Go to the Moon Presentation at the National Mall

“Here Men From The Planet Earth First Set Foot Upon the Moon, July 1969 A.D. We Came in Peace For All Mankind.”
-Apollo 11 Plaque Inscription

In celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 Mission, which landed the first humans on the moon, the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum (in partnership with Boeing and 59 Productions) created a fantastic multimedia show on the National Mall in Washington, DC centered around a projection of the Apollo 11 mission’s Saturn V rocket projected onto the Washington Monument. The show was called Apollo 50: Go to the Moon and featured real footage and audio from the Apollo mission.

The projection was live July 16-20, 2019 with two nights of shows on the 19th and 20th. With the nation’s renewed interest in American space programs and a landmark anniversary for the Apollo 11 mission, “Apollo 50: Go to the Moon” was a timely and captivating experience for the over half million people that attended in DC and for those that watched from live streams or on video, and the show demonstrated the amazing capabilities of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math). It was science-themed, technically challenging (i.e. creating the projections), and overall a multimedia art piece. If you are an educator working with STEAM, this is a great overall idea for a lesson! If you or your students are also interested in lighting design (which “Go to the Moon’s” design draws upon), Art, Technically’s Lighting Design lesson plan may be of interest to you.

You can watch a recording of the show below and see what made this event so special!

As always, reach for the stars ✨