Apollo 11 at 50: Celebrating first steps on another world
July 13, 2019 GMTCAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A half-century ago, in the middle of a mean year of war, famine, violence in the streets and the widening of the generation gap, CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA’s Orion capsule and its test dummies swooped one last time around the moon Monday, flying over a couple Apollo landing sites before heading home. Orion will aim for a Pacific splashdown Sunday off San Diego, setting the stage for astronauts on the next flight in a couple years.NASA capsule flies over Apollo landing sites, heads home
December 5, 2022 GMT
NASA capsule on way to moon after launch by giant new rocket
November 16, 2022 GMTCAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A space capsule hurtled toward the moon Wednesday for the first time in 50 years, following a thunderous launch of NASA’s mightiest rocket in a dress rehearsal for astronaut flights.
EXPLAINER: NASA’s new mega moon rocket, Orion crew capsule
November 16, 2022 GMTCAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA is kicking off its new moon program with a test flight of a brand-new rocket and capsule.
Liftoff was slated for early Wednesday morning from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
NASA’s moon rocket returns to pad for next launch attempt
November 4, 2022 GMTCAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA’s moon rocket is back on the pad for another launch attempt, following more repairs.
The 322-foot (98-meter) rocket departed its hangar in the middle of the night and completed the 4-mile (6.4-kilometer) trip shortly after sunrise Friday.
Astronaut James McDivitt, Apollo 9 commander, dies at 93
October 18, 2022 GMTWASHINGTON (AP) — James A. McDivitt, who commanded the Apollo 9 mission testing the first complete set of equipment to go to the moon, has died. He was 93.
McDivitt was also the commander of 1965’s Gemini 4 mission, where his best friend and colleague Ed White made the first U.S.
Take 2: NASA aims for Saturday launch of new moon rocket
August 31, 2022 GMTCAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA will try again Saturday to launch its new moon rocket on a test flight, after engine trouble halted the first countdown this week.
NASA scrubs launch of new moon rocket after engine problem
August 29, 2022 GMTCAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA called off the launch of its mighty new moon rocket on its debut flight with three test dummies aboard Monday after a last-minute cascade of problems culminating in unexplained trouble related to an engine.
NASA moon rocket on track for launch despite lightning hits
August 28, 2022 GMTCAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA’s new moon rocket remained on track to blast off on a crucial test flight Monday, despite a series of lightning strikes at the launch pad.
The 322-foot (98-meter) Space Launch System rocket is the most powerful ever built by NASA.
EXPLAINER: NASA tests new moon rocket, 50 years after Apollo
August 24, 2022 GMTCAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Years late and billions over budget, NASA’s new moon rocket makes its debut next week in a high-stakes test flight before astronauts get on top.
The 322-foot (98-meter) rocket will attempt to send an empty crew capsule into a far-flung lunar orbit, 50 years after NASA's famed Apollo moonshots.
NASA’s moon rocket moved to launch pad for 1st test flight
August 17, 2022 GMTCAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA’s new moon rocket arrived at the launch pad Wednesday ahead of its debut flight in less than two weeks.
The 322-foot (98-meter) rocket emerged from its mammoth hangar late Tuesday night, drawing crowds of Kennedy Space Center workers, many of whom were not yet born when NASA sent astronauts to the moon a half-century ago.
Buzz Aldrin flight-to-moon jacket sells at auction for $2.8M
July 26, 2022 GMTNEW YORK (AP) — Buzz Aldrin's jacket worn on his historic first mission to the moon's surface in 1969 has been auctioned off to a bidder for nearly $2.8 million.
New lunar rover in the works as NASA moon mission advances
July 21, 2022 GMTA new lunar rover is under development by Lockheed Martin and Goodyear as NASA gears up for a return to the moon.
NASA aiming for late August test flight of giant moon rocket
July 20, 2022 GMTCAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — On the 53rd anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing, NASA announced Wednesday it’s shooting for a late August launch of its giant, new moon rocket.
NASA will attempt the more than month-long lunar test flight with three mannequins, but no astronauts, as early as Aug.
Scientists grow plants in lunar dirt, next stop moon
May 12, 2022 GMTCAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — For the first time, scientists have grown plants in soil from the moon collected by NASA’s Apollo astronauts.
Researchers had no idea if anything would sprout in the harsh moon dirt and wanted to see if it could be used to grow food by the next generation of lunar explorers.
Q&A: Richard Linklater on time, nostalgia & ‘Apollo 10 1/2’
March 30, 2022 GMTNEW YORK (AP) — Bike rides, kickball, Jiffy Pop, Jell-O and other well-remembered details crowd Richard Linklater’s “Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood,” an affectionate ode to his own childhood growing up outside Houston in the late 1960s.
Review: Linklater charmingly chronicles life in 1969 Houston
March 30, 2022 GMTThe geniuses at NASA accidentally build the lunar module a little too small for an adult in “Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood.” In Richard Linklater’s first foray into animation since “A Scanner Darkly,” a few fast-talking NASA men (Glen Powell and Zachary Levi) recruit an average local elementary school student, Stan, to test it out for them on a top secret mission to the Moon.
Final goodbye: Recalling influential people who died in 2021
December 31, 2021 GMTThey both carved out sterling reputations as military and political leaders over years of public service. But both also saw their legacies tarnished by their actions in the long, bloody war in Iraq.
Missing moon rock from Apollo 17 mission back in Louisiana
September 29, 2021 GMTBATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana has recovered a missing lunar rock gifted to the state to commemorate the last manned U.S. mission to the moon after it turned up in the hands of a man who recycles wooden plaques.
Podcast revisits how the biggest stories unfolded on TV news
July 9, 2021 GMTNEW YORK (AP) — For a broadcast journalist, they are the moments that MSNBC's Brian Williams says you can almost feel people watching you.
Planes crash into the World Trade Center. A president is assassinated.
60 years since 1st American in space: Tourists lining up
May 5, 2021 GMTCAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Sixty years after Alan Shepard became the first American in space, everyday people are on the verge of following in his cosmic footsteps.
Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin used Wednesday's anniversary to kick off an auction for a seat on the company's first crew spaceflight — a short Shepard-like hop launched by a rocket named New Shepard...
Astronaut Michael Collins, Apollo 11 pilot, dead of cancer
April 28, 2021 GMTApollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins, who orbited the moon alone while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made their historic first steps on the lunar surface, died Wednesday...
China spacecraft lands on moon to bring rocks back to Earth
December 2, 2020 GMTBEIJING (AP) — A Chinese spacecraft sent to return lunar rocks to Earth collected its first samples Wednesday after landing on the moon, the government announced, adding to a string of successes for Beijing's increasingly ambitious space program...
Trump’s plan to celebrate space launch hits weather snag
May 27, 2020 GMTCAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump’s plan to celebrate the first space launch of American astronauts from U.S. soil in nearly a decade on Wednesday hit a snag when the mission was postponed at the last minute because of bad weather...
‘Houston, we’ve had a problem’: Remembering Apollo 13 at 50
April 9, 2020 GMTCAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Apollo 13′s astronauts never gave a thought to their mission number as they blasted off for the moon 50 years ago...
Apollo 15 astronaut Al Worden, who circled moon, dies at 88
March 18, 2020 GMTCAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Apollo 15 astronaut Al Worden, who circled the moon alone in 1971 while his two crewmates test-drove the first lunar rover, died Wednesday at age 88...
Virginia city renames road for Apollo 11 astronaut Armstrong
February 27, 2020 GMTHAMPTON, Va. (AP) — The Hampton City Council has voted to place the name of Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong on a road which had been named for a Confederate general...
Council mulls changing street named for Confederate general
February 26, 2020 GMTHAMPTON, Va. (AP) — The Hampton City Council is considering a resolution that would change a street named for a Confederate general to one named for Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon...
Neil Armstrong donates personal items to Cosmosphere museum
January 23, 2020 GMTHUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) — The family of astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first man to step on the moon, has donated two items that were aboard the Apollo 11 mission in 1969 to the Cosmosphere space museum in Hutchinson...
NASA manager casts doubt on 2024 moon landing by astronauts
September 18, 2019 GMTCAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A top NASA manager cast doubt Wednesday on the space agency's ability to land astronauts on the moon by 2024...
After first steps on moon, crew welcomed home with aloha
July 29, 2019 GMTHONOLULU (AP) — Neil Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin and Michael Collins' trip to the moon concluded with a stay in Hawaii...
State fair remembers moon landing with butter astronauts
July 24, 2019 GMTCOLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The moon may be made of cheese, but these astronauts are made of butter.
The Ohio State Fair is commemorating the 50th anniversary of the moon landing with life-size butter sculptures of Neil Armstrong and his fellow astronauts...
Senators want to rename NASA facility after Neil Armstrong
July 21, 2019 GMTTOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — Ohio's two U.S. senators plan on asking Congress to rename a NASA research facility in northern Ohio after astronaut Neil Armstrong...
Moon back in NASA’s court 50 years after 1st lunar landing
July 21, 2019 GMTCAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Fifty years after humanity's first lunar footsteps, the moon is back in NASA's court...
Pope: Moon landing inspires progress on justice, environment
July 21, 2019 GMTVATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis is hoping that the 50th anniversary of the first moon walk inspires efforts to help our "common home" on Earth...
MOONSTRUCK: One giant leap for mankind
July 21, 2019 GMTSunday, July 20, 1969, was a day I will never forget.
I was working at Longview Fibre Co. in San Leandro, California, as a “glue boy” and bundler putting together cardboard boxes for Green Giant Co-ops and much bigger boxes for the Central Valley lettuce growers.
Nation marks 50 years after Apollo 11′s ‘giant leap’ on moon
July 20, 2019 GMTCAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A moonstruck nation celebrated the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11's "giant leap" by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin at parties, races, ball games and concerts Saturday, toasting with Tang and gobbling MoonPies...
Love astronaut-themed science fiction? Here’s a list of some beloved books, movies and TV shows of that genre
July 20, 2019 GMTAll this reporting and writing about the moon landing’s 50th anniversary got us in the mood to read and watch some science fiction. So here are our staffers’ picks for some of their favorite astronaut-themed science fiction books, movies and TV shows.
Kennedy, Armstrong and the Age of Aquarius
July 20, 2019 GMTIn the summer of 1969, men from the planet Earth first set foot on an Outer World. Our moon, for so long the subject of wonder, song and poetry, became something touched by humanity and forever changed our perception of space.
To The Moon And ... Beyond?
July 20, 2019 GMTThe greatest testament to the audacity of man’s landing on the moon, 50 years ago today, is that it still inspires not only those who were alive to see it on their flickering 19-inch black and white television screens, but later generations for whom high technology is a given.
Santa Fe woman helped guide man to the moon
July 19, 2019 GMTWhen NASA hired Frances “Poppy” Northcutt as a “computeress” in 1965, many credited both NASA and her with breaking down gender walls because she was the first woman to work in the Mission Control program that oversaw Apollo space expeditions.
The moon landing was a giant leap for movies, too
July 19, 2019 GMTNEW YORK (AP) — In 1964, Stanley Kubrick, on the recommendation of the science-fiction author Arthur C...
Memories of watching Apollo 11: ‘You could hear a pin drop’
July 18, 2019 GMTNEW YORK (AP) — When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took their first steps on the moon in 1969, the world was watching...
AP’s Apollo 11 anniversary book chronicles journey to moon
July 17, 2019 GMT(EDITOR'S NOTE: "Apollo 11: An AP Special Anniversary Edition," available in paperback and e-book exclusively on Amazon.com , chronicles America's journey to the moon.
Apollo 11 astronaut returns to launch pad 50 years later
July 17, 2019 GMTCAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins returned Tuesday to the exact spot where he flew to the moon 50 years ago with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin...
Apollo 11 moon landing had thousands working behind scenes
July 15, 2019 GMTCAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — It took 400,000 people to put Apollo 11's Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon a half-century ago...
Armstrong’s famous “one small step” quote -- explained
July 13, 2019 GMTWhat did Neil Armstrong really say when he took his first step on the moon?
Millions on Earth who listened to him on TV or radio CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Mission commander Neil Armstrong was the flying ace, Buzz Aldrin the scholar...Apollo 11′s ‘amiable strangers’ Armstrong, Aldrin, Collins
July 13, 2019 GMT
Armstrong, Aldrin were first of 12 men to walk on the moon
July 13, 2019 GMTDuring the Apollo space program, 12 men walked on the moon from 1969 to 1972. Neil Armstrong was the first and Gene Cernan was the last to leave the lunar surface...
‘One small step’ and other notable quotes on moon landing
July 13, 2019 GMTNotable quotes on the Apollo 11 moon landing:
"I believe this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before the decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth...
AP Was There: Man walks on the moon
July 13, 2019 GMTSPACE CENTER, Houston (AP) — This story was first published after NASA astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon on July 20, 1969...
Here’s a fact: We went to the moon in 1969
July 11, 2019 GMTNEW YORK (AP) — Fifty years after Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon, some people insist it never happened and was all a big hoax by the U...
AP Was There: Man walks on the moon
July 10, 2019 GMTSPACE CENTER, Houston (AP) — This story was first published after NASA astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon on July 20, 1969. The Associated Press is republishing a version of the story to mark the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.
Armstrong, Aldrin were first of 12 men to walk on the moon
July 10, 2019 GMTDuring the Apollo space program, 12 men walked on the moon from 1969 to 1972. Neil Armstrong was the first and Gene Cernan was the last to leave the lunar surface. Eight have died.
‘One small step’ and other notable quotes on moon landing
July 10, 2019 GMTNotable quotes on the Apollo 11 moon landing:
"I believe this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before the decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth." — President John F.
Armstrong’s famous “one small step” quote -- explained
July 10, 2019 GMTWhat did Neil Armstrong really say when he took his first step on the moon?
Millions on Earth who listened to him on TV or radio heard this :
Apollo 11′s ‘amiable strangers’ Armstrong, Aldrin, Collins
July 10, 2019 GMTCAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Mission commander Neil Armstrong was the flying ace, Buzz Aldrin the scholar. Michael Collins was a crack test pilot, too, but also a wordsmith who described the trio as "amiable strangers."
Apollo 11 at 50: Celebrating first steps on another world
July 10, 2019 GMTCAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A half-century ago, in the middle of a mean year of war, famine, violence in the streets and the widening of the generation gap, men from planet Earth stepped onto another world for the first time, uniting people around the globe in a way not seen before or since.
Before moon landing, astronauts learned geology in Arizona
July 8, 2019 GMTFLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — Before Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin knew they would be the first to walk on the moon, they took crash courses in geology at the Grand Canyon and a nearby impact crater that is the most well-preserved on Earth...