35th Anniversary of Apollo XI Celebration

On Friday, July 16, we celebrated the 35th Anniversary of Apollo XI. Below are some of the highlights of the day.
		Cradle of Aviation docents with Tang in hand, prepare for the launch toast at 9:32 am.
		Rockets away! Cradle of Aviation summer campers launch foam rockets at 9:32 in honor of Apollo XI launch. Astronaut Fred Haise and former Grumman president, Joe Gavin oversee the launch.
	Fred Haise launches a foam rocket with assistance from one of our summer campers.
		Astronaut Fred Haise and former Grumman president, Joe Gavin, who served as director of the Lunar Excursion Module Program from 1963-1972, shared memories of the endeavor. "The people who were invloved, whether they were Grumman or NASA, I think all of us have had a special feeling of being on the team that made that thing work," Gavin said.
		Fred Haise and Joe Gavin view the Lunar Module (LM13) on display at the Cradle of Aviation. Haise, who was a member of the Apollo 11 backup crew, praised Grumman for its contribution and said of the lunar module, "there was nothing like it built before, nothing like it ever since."
Haise eventually flew on the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission that experienced an oxygen tank explosion that damaged the spacecraft. The lunar module holds a special significance for him because the astronauts were forced to use it as a lifeboat. Apollo 13 orbited the moon and returned to Earth. The moon landing was aborted. "They were very successful vehicles. They flew 10 flights and all were 100 percent successful," he said, "Apollo 13's was 150 percent successful."

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