Broadcast of Lunar Surface in Hi Def to Commemorate 45th Anniversary of Apollo 11 Moon Landing
It was the greatest accomplishment of the human race and the culmination of eight years’ work by half a million people when the Apollo 11 Lunar Lander touched down on the Sea of Tranquillity on July 20, 1969.
Cheering echoed around the globe and after countless millennia of dreaming about it, people were setting foot on another world.
Experts soon predicted that NASA would send people to Mars by the mid-1980s. That there’d be lunar colonies before the turn of the century. These were even vividly depicted in the classic film, 2001: A Space Odyssey.
But something else happened. The final three lunar landings – Apollo 18, Apollo 19, and Apollo 20 — were canceled by President Nixon. And while there was talk over the subsequent years of going back someday, plans were never adequately funded. The most recent program was finally axed by President Obama in his first term. If anyone will ever walk on the moon during the next decade or two, they will not likely be blasting off from the United States.
It’s now 45 years since the first moon landing. Two-thirds of today’s Americans weren’t even alive when Neil Armstrong made his “One small step” announcement. Yet the sheer magic and complexity of that accomplishment marks it as more significant than the building of the Panama Canal or the Great Wall of China. It was our finest moment.
Slooh will celebrate the 45th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing with an amazing high-definition lunar broadcast on Sunday, July 20th starting at 5:30 PM PDT / 8:30 PM EDT / 00:30 UTC (7/21). Slooh will broadcast the event live from a special feed located in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
Viewers can watch the event unfold free on Slooh.com. The image stream will be accompanied by discussions led by Slooh host, Geoff Fox, Slooh astronomer, Bob Berman, Slooh Observatory Engineer, Paul Cox, along with numerous special guests, including documentary filmmaker, Duncan Copp, and science journalist, Andrew Chaikin. Viewers can follow updates on the show by using the hashtag #SloohApollo11.
The panel will explore a wide range of topics, including not well known stories about the Apollo program and the numerous conspiracy theories about the landing.
Says Berman, “A disconcerting minority of Americans think the Moon landings were a hoax, even though this can be decisively rebutted in thirty seconds. And wild, still-largely unknown secrets surround that first mission, including humorous mishaps that did not come to light until much later, that were personally revealed to me by Buzz Aldrin. Our panel and our viewers are going to have a lot of fun during this live program commemorating Apollo 11 while we watch the fat waning crescent Moon look amazing through telescopes located in Dubai.”
On the night of July 20th, the Moon will not rise until well after midnight, local time. Happily, Slooh’s feed in Dubai is located in a time zone which allows the telescopes to image the Moon in the first half of the night for the United States and Canada.
45th Anniversary Apollo 11 Landing Broadcast Details:
Start time: July 20th at 5:30 PM PDT / 8:30 PM EDT / 00:30 UTC (7/21)
Link: www.slooh.com
Hashtag: #sloohapollo11
Slooh Media Policy:
We own all copyright rights in the text, images, photographs, video, audio, graphics, user interface, and other content provided on Slooh live broadcasts. At times, we may include additional content from NASA or other official partners to help explain what’s happening in the live image feed. A Slooh watermark will be included on our live feed. Slooh may run a house ad prior, during, or after any broadcast to highlight the Slooh Community Membership program. You may embed our feeds into your coverage so long as courtesy of Slooh is located next to the feed with a link back to www.slooh.com. You may not alter or modify our broadcast in any way, unless provided with written permission to do so.
CONTACT INFORMATION:
Patrick Paolucci
EmaiL: press@slooh.com
Tel: 1 877-427-5664 x3
