McMoons: How a Band of Scientists Saved Lunar Image History

Exhibit Open Friday, September 23, 2016

In the middle of the Sunnyvale NASA campus, an unseemly McDonald’s building sits alone on its lot, dwarfed by the massive skeleton of Hangar One looming behind it. It still bears the yellow and brown

Before the Eagle could land and Neil Armstrong uttered his famous words about giant leaps for mankind, NASA had to conduct a vital series of unmanned lunar orbital missions to determine exactly where the astronauts could safely land on the moon. Despite the imperative nature of the project, the images were almost destroyed two decades later were it not for the tenacity and foresight of a handful of self-described “techno-archaeologists.”

Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Lunar Orbiter missions, this exhibit will tell the story of how

a rag-tag band of dedicated scientists, former NASA employees, and a couple of twelve-year-old

interns saved these irreplaceable pieces of space history.

This exhibit will take the visitor on an extraordinary journey from a dilapidated storage space to a veterinarian’s garage in central California, and finally to an abandoned McDonald’s building on the Moffett NASA campus where archival space history is still being made today.

M U S E U M H O U R S
Wednesday 1pm-5pm | Thursday 11am-8pm | Friday - Sunday 11am-5pm

A D M I S S I O N S
General Admission is $10 |FREE for members and visitors under 18 years of age
Seniors, military and students $6 with valid ID | Members also receive free admission to select Programs and Events.

The New Museum Los Gatos is proud to collaborate with the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project and NASA on this exhibit.

Donate $5, $10, $20 or more towards this exhibit and the ongoing efforts of the McMoon Project.

Thank you to our Media Sponsor, Photographer Winni Wintermeyer.