Thousands Gather To Relive The Apollo 11 Moon Landing On LI

More than 3,000 people joined together at the Cradle of Aviation Museum on July 20 to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Apollo 11 at a Moon Festival.

The all-day celebration featured activities for families, including meet-and-greets with real astronauts, moon buggy races, rocket launches, robotics activities and more. Guests were able to experience the moon landing in a recreated 1969 living room, and tour the museum's space exhibits.

The centerpiece of the exhibit, a real Lunar Module ready to use for Apollo 19 (but ultimately cancelled), was the highlight of tours. The day culminated in a re-enactment of the Lunar Module descent on the moon at exactly 4:17 p.m. in the museum’s atrium to coincide with the time of the original lunar landing. A packed house cheered, waved American flags, and watched original footage of communication between the Lunar Module crew (Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin) and Mission Control, as the NASA 1/3 Scale Model Lunar Module landed on a recreated lunar surface.

“Today was the culmination of over a year of events to celebrate the most important event in history. Over 3,000 people joined together to recreate the Lunar Module landing at the Cradle of Aviation Museum," said Andrew Parton, president of the Cradle of Aviation Museum and Education Center.

Nassau County Executive Laura Curran, Suffolk County Executive, Steve Bellone, and NYS Senator, Kevin Thomas attended the event and were on hand for the lunar descent. Other attendees included families who had relatives who worked for Grumman. The children of Grumman employees wanted to honor their parents' contributions while sharing it with their own children to understand the impact of their grandparents’ contributions.