It was the greatest accomplishment of the human race and the  culmination of eight years’ work by half a million people when the  Apollo 11 Lunar Lander touched down on the Sea of Tranquillity on July  20, 1969.

Cheering echoed around the globe and after countless  millennia of dreaming about it, people were setting foot on another  world.

Experts soon predicted that NASA would send people to Mars by the  mid-1980s. That there’d be lunar colonies before the turn of the  century. These were even vividly depicted in the classic film, 2001: A  Space Odyssey.

But something else happened. The final three lunar landings – Apollo  18, Apollo 19, and Apollo 20 — were canceled by President Nixon. And  while there was talk over the subsequent years of going back someday,  plans were never adequately funded. The most recent program was  finally axed by President Obama in his first term. If anyone will ever  walk on the moon during the next decade or two, they will not likely  be blasting off from the United States.

It’s now 45 years since the first moon landing. Two-thirds of today’s  Americans weren’t even alive when Neil Armstrong made his “One small  step” announcement. Yet the sheer magic and complexity of that  accomplishment marks it as more significant than the building of the  Panama Canal or the Great Wall of China. It was our finest moment.

Slooh will celebrate the 45th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing  with an amazing high-definition lunar broadcast on Sunday, July 20th  starting at 5:30 PM PDT / 8:30 PM EDT / 00:30 UTC (7/21). Slooh will  broadcast the event live from a special feed located in Dubai in the  United Arab Emirates.

Viewers can watch the event unfold free on Slooh.com. The image stream  will be accompanied by discussions led by Slooh host, Geoff Fox, Slooh  astronomer, Bob Berman, Slooh Observatory Engineer, Paul Cox, along  with numerous special guests, including documentary filmmaker, Duncan  Copp, and science journalist, Andrew Chaikin. Viewers can follow updates on the show by using the hashtag #SloohApollo11.

The panel will explore a wide range of topics, including not well  known stories about the Apollo program and the numerous conspiracy  theories about the landing.

Says Berman, “A disconcerting minority of Americans think the Moon  landings were a hoax, even though this can be decisively rebutted in  thirty seconds. And wild, still-largely unknown secrets surround that  first mission, including humorous mishaps that did not come to light  until much later, that were personally revealed to me by Buzz Aldrin.  Our panel and our viewers are going to have a lot of fun during this  live program commemorating Apollo 11 while we watch the fat waning  crescent Moon look amazing through telescopes located in Dubai.”

On the night of July 20th, the Moon will not rise until well after  midnight, local time. Happily, Slooh’s feed in Dubai is located in a  time zone which allows the telescopes to image the Moon in the first  half of the night for the United States and Canada.

45th Anniversary Apollo 11 Landing Broadcast Details:

Start time: July 20th at 5:30 PM PDT / 8:30 PM EDT / 00:30 UTC (7/21) 

Link: www.slooh.com

Hashtag:    #sloohapollo11

Slooh Media Policy:

We own all copyright rights in the text, images, photographs, video,  audio, graphics, user interface, and other content provided on Slooh  live broadcasts. At times, we may include additional content from NASA  or other official partners to help explain what’s happening in the  live image feed. A Slooh watermark will be included on our live feed.  Slooh may run a house ad prior, during, or after any broadcast to  highlight the Slooh Community Membership program. You may embed our  feeds into your coverage so long as courtesy of Slooh is located next  to the feed with a link back to www.slooh.com. You may not alter or  modify our broadcast in any way, unless provided with written  permission to do so.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Patrick Paolucci

EmaiL: press@slooh.com

Tel:  1 877-427-5664  x3