Jul 16 1989
From The Space Library
Apollo 11 astronauts Neil A. Armstrong, Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., and Michael Collins participated in the first of several planned ceremonies at NASA facilities commemorating the twentieth anniversary of the first crew-assisted lunar landing on July 20, 1969. Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins gathered at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Florida, with a crowd of 6,000 NASA employees and their families to commemorate the launching of their Saturn V rocket from KSC on July 16, 1969. The ceremony included a play-back of the final three minutes of the Apollo 11 countdown and statements by the former astronauts. Following the ceremony, the astronauts rode in a 20-mile motorcade to Cocoa Beach, where they attended a luncheon in their honor, (UPI, Jul 16/89; USA Today, Jul 17/89; B Sun, Jul 17/89)
NASA announced the selection of three contractors to research possible propulsion systems for the proposed Advance Launch System (ALS). NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama, selected Aerojet General Corporation, Sacramento, California; Pratt and Whitney Division of United Technologies Corporation, West Palm Beach, Florida; and Rocketdyne Division of Rockwell International, Canoga Park, California, to research ALS designs. The systems definition contract totaled $20 million. The ALS would be a next-generation launch system capable of transporting 150,000-pound payloads into low Earth orbit. (Def News, Jul 17/89)
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