To mark the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing, the South Carolina State Museum created a new exhibition charting the history of NASA’s Apollo program and South Carolina’s role in lunar exploration. The exhibit is called Apollo 50: Journey to the Moon.
“A lot of things go into the making of an exhibit. Just from the standpoint of content, there’s finding the proper historical context, in this case, the historical context of the Apollo program being set in the late 50s, 1960s, and a little bit into the early 70s,” says Brian Jirout, Curator at the South Carolina State Museum.
The immersive exhibition takes visitors on a journey through the years of the Apollo program as America raced to accomplish a lunar landing before the Soviet Union. Museum-goers can learn about South Carolinians who were astronauts and contributed to the Apollo program. Some exhibit features are a replica Apollo Lunar Rover that guests can sit in, a collection of artifacts from Charles Duke’s Apollo 16 mission, and training “moon” rocks.
“I hope the guests will realize how much nerve these guys had to just go into space. I mean, our smart phones have more computing power than this whole rocket had…and just the dedication,” says Huck Behrends, Director of Exhibits and Facilities.
Learn more about the Space Age in Chasing the Moon. The series premieres on July 8, 2019 on SCETV. “Chasing the Moon,” a film by Robert Stone, reimagines the race to the moon for a new generation, upending much of the conventional mythology surrounding the effort.
South Carolina ETV will be hosting several community events around the state. For more information, check out the press release.
