The Apollo 11 Capsule Is Going On Tour
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DALLAS (KRLD) - The capsule that first put man on the moon is going on a road trip to four different cities.
The Apollo 11 command module will be leaving the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum for the first time in more than four decades to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the moon landing. Michael Neufeld is a senior curator at the museum and he says they carefully selected the museums for the tour.
"They had to have a floor strong enough to hold something. The handling device is 13,000 pounds. So it may be small in terms of flying -- but in terms of handling an object -- it's a pretty big and heavy thing to move around," said Neufeld.
Space Center Houston will be the first stop in October. That's from October 14, 2017 to March 18, 2018. The next stop is the Saint Louis Science Center from April 14, 2018 to September 3, 2018, followed by a stop at the Museum of Flight in Seattle from March 16th to September 2, 2019.
The Apollo 11 command module will return to a place of honor in the new exhibition Destination Moon that's scheduled to open in 2021.