Moonwalker Neil Armstrong and his two Apollo 11 crewmates attended a reunion in Alabama Saturday, setting the stage for a major celebration Sunday at the Kennedy Space Center to mark the 20th anniversary of their launch to the moon.
Armstrong, the first man on the moon, and crewmates Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, attended a celebration Saturday evening, complete with fireworks and a laser show, at the Alabama Space and Rocket Center near NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., where the giant Saturn 5 moon rockets were designed.Highlighting an afternoon open house at Marshall, the roar of a rocket engine rumbled across the space center during a two-minute test firing of a space shuttle main engine at 12:30 p.m. MDT in a stand once used for Saturn engine firings.
"Engineers will have a few weeks to analyze the data on this firing," said astronaut Mike Lampton. "This looked real good."
Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins blasted off on their historic journey at 7:32 a.m. MDT July 16, 1969. To mark the 20th anniversary of the ground-shaking launch, all three astronauts planned to fly to the Kennedy Space Center early Sunday to kick off a massive weeklong celebration.
"I think it stands today as an even more amazing feat and I think it will always stand as one of the greatest achievements of man," Apollo flight operations director Christopher Kraft said in an interview.
With the astronauts in Huntsville Saturday night, hundreds of Kennedy Space Center employees, retired workers and family members were expected to attend an outdoor party in Titusville, Fla., to renew old friendships and reminisce about the glory days of Apollo.
Thousands were to be on hand at the space center early Sunday to hear Armstrong and his crewmates speak in front of an old Saturn 5 on display near the massive Vehicle Assembly Building where the moon rockets were "stacked" prior to their move to the launch pad.
"No one has ever made a perfect machine," Armstrong told more than 500 guests at the Huntsville reception, hosted by Boeing Corp., builder of the Saturn 5 first stage. "But those of you who built the Saturn 5 came about as close as anyone could to building a perfect machine."
Bridging the old and the new, the shuttle Columbia was hauled to launch pad 39B early Saturday and the ship's five-man crew was scheduled to fly to the spaceport about 10:30 a.m. Sunday for a dress-rehearsal countdown Tuesday. Launch on a secret military mission is planned for early next month.
But for NASA, Sunday marks the 20th anniversary of the launch of a mission considered by many to be the most ambitious space flight ever undertaken, a feat of technology that stands to this day as the ultimate symbol of American technological prowess.
"The 20th anniversary of (Apollo 11) is probably one of the most important events in human history in this entire last thousand years," NASA Administrator Richard Truly said during a news conference Thursday.
At the space center Sunday, a tape of the Apollo 11 launch was to be played, timed to end with liftoff at 9:32 a.m., after which the astronauts were to speak.
All three then planned to participate in a parade from the space center to Cocoa Beach where local community leaders, NASA and industry officials were to host a luncheon. Later, the crew will fly to Washington.
Armstrong and Aldrin landed on the moon's Sea of Tranquillity at 2:18 p.m. MDT July 20, 1969. Six and a half hours later, Armstrong stepped onto the lunar surface, saying: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."
Thursday is the 20th anniversary of the moon landing, an event that will be marked by a major celebration on the mall by the National Air and Space Museum that will be attended by the astronauts, President Bush and other officials.