Skimm This: Apollo 11, 50 Years Later

It’s July 19th. Today, we Skimm’d...the moon. 

• Apollo 11 touched down on the lunar surface 50 years ago this week. It took years of prep, but just eight days to get there and back. We’ll tell you about some of the mission’s lasting impacts.

• We’ll also break down what happened over the course of the mission: the tech that went into it, the events that could have gone wrong, and what the astronauts on board brought home with them.

theSkimm: Tomorrow is the 50th anniversary of the “giant leap for mankind.” You may have heard of it. On today’s episode, we break down the Apollo 11 mission: what it took to prepare for the mission, and what actually happened over the course of the eight-day-long journey to the moon and back. There was a lot that could have gone wrong. But it was a complete success. And NASA kept returning to the moon. Astronauts not only brought in a new phase of the space race - they  brought back some souvenirs. Some of which are just being studied for the first time. Listen in.

This is a special episode from our Notes series on theSkimm’s app, which is available on the Apple App Store and Google Play. While you’re there, check out our deep dive on the future of space travel.