Destination Moon - Columbia and the Apollo 11 Crew
A stop on Washington DC National Mall Walking Tour, a free self-guided tour.
Destination Moon, gallery 206 on the second floor, tells the story of the race to the Moon, and its centerpiece is Columbia, the command module that carried Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins to the Moon and back in July 1969. It is the only part of the Apollo 11 spacecraft that returned to Earth.
Nearby is the spacesuit Armstrong wore when he stepped onto the Moon, displayed in a case that controls temperature and humidity to slow its aging. Look also for a huge F-1 rocket engine, five of which powered the first stage of each Saturn V, and the white vest that flight director Gene Kranz wore in Mission Control.
The gallery covers the space race from the first rockets to the last Apollo landing.
When you are done, head back out to the stop and on along the Mall.
More on Wikipedia: Apollo 11 · Rocketdyne F-1 · Gene Kranz
Stops on this tour
- Washington Monument
- National Museum of African American History and Cu
- National Museum of American History
- Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
- National Gallery of Art
- United States Capitol
- United States Botanic Garden
- National Museum of the American Indian
- National Air and Space Museum
- Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
- The Smithsonian Institution Building - The Castle
- Freer Gallery of Art
- Jefferson Memorial
- World War II Memorial
- Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial
- Korean War Memorial
- Lincoln Memorial
- Vietnam Veterans Memorial
- White House Ellipse
- White House
- Lafayette Square