Edmontonians have blast commemorating Apollo 11
Rocketry club sets off 16 model rockets on 50th anniversary of moon landing
On July 16, 1969, the Apollo 11 space flight launched Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins out of the Earth’s atmosphere.
Four days later, the three men landed on the surface of the moon, where Armstrong took his monumental “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
Fifty years later, Edmontonians were among those across the world celebrating the anniversary of the historic launch.
The day’s first launch took place in a field at the end of Campbell Road in St. Albert. There, the Edmonton Rocketry Club set off 16 model rockets at 7:32 a.m. — 50 years to the minute from the Apollo 11 launch.
The rockets launched in a cloud of smoke, with some reaching heights of more than 250 metres at speeds of nearly 500 km/h, in front of a crowd of about 50 early risers.
For Matthew Ornawka, the Edmonton Rocketry Club’s director of public relations, this date is important because it represents the time where human space travel and exploration moved from a science-fiction fantasy to a reality.
“It was the birth of the space and rocket enthusiasm across the world,” Ornawka said.
“It sparked the imagination of a generation of people — my generation. And what we’re trying to do here today is spark everybody else’s imagination to carry on the tradition of rocketry.”
Later in the day, the Telus World of Science launched 50 model rockets at 11 a.m. Ten of those rockets were scale models of Saturn V, the rocket used in the Apollo 11 launch. Kids pressed the buttons to fire off the other 40 rockets.
“I was only four years old at the time of the landing, but I do vividly remember having my dad take me outside during a break in the clouds and say, ‘There, that’s the moon. There’s two people walking up there right now,’” said Frank Florian, the director of planetarium and space sciences at the Telus World of Science. “And that created quite the impression on me as a little kid,”
Florian became a scientist in large part due to his love for aviation sparked by the historic mission, and he hopes he can help instil that same love for science and space in young Canadians.
“One of these kids here today could be the Canadian astronaut walking on the moon or even on Mars,” he said.
The Telus World of Science is also running special space-themed programming until July 21, including a late-night laser show set to the classic Pink Floyd album The Dark Side of the Moon.
While Tuesday’s rocket launches were about commemorating an iconic moment in history, those launching the models also took joy in the spectacle of the event.
“I’ve always enjoyed the sight, the sound, the speed of the sport of rocketry. It was something that allowed me to attain a semblance of what they were able to do with the big rockets down in the States,” said Ornawka, whose rocket got stuck in overhead power lines on its way back to the ground.
The launches were part of a global effort coordinated by the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala., to break a world record for the most rockets flown in a day.
One of these kids here today could be the Canadian astronaut walking on the moon or even on Mars.