Campus Life

Penn State celebrates Apollo 11 moon landing with speaker and film event

Astronaut Edwin E. "Buzz" Aldrin Jr. photographed walking on the moon on July 20, 1969. Credit: NASA. All Rights Reserved.

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Neil Armstrong took “one small step” onto the moon 50 years ago. To celebrate the anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing, Penn State will host a speaker and film event at The State Theatre in downtown State College on Saturday, July 20. The event, which is free and open to the public, begins at 6:15 p.m. with informational and interactive displays set up inside the theater.

Former NASA astronaut James Pawelczyk, associate professor of physiology and kinesiology at Penn State who flew aboard the NASA STS-90 Space Shuttle mission, will speak at 7 p.m. before introducing the 2019 documentary “Apollo 11.” The film primarily uses archival footage of the Apollo 11 mission, including some previously unreleased to the public. It includes scenes from Launch Complex 39; the launch of the Saturn V rocket; the recovery of astronauts Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins and the Apollo 11 command module; and post-mission efforts aboard the USS Hornet.

For more information about this and other Apollo 11 50th anniversary events, visit www.pa.spacegrant.org.

Last Updated July 16, 2019

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