Exhibition: The Moon

To celebrate 50 years since NASA’s Apollo 11 mission landed the first humans on the Moon, the UK’s biggest exhibition dedicated to Earth’s nearest celestial neighbour.

Featuring over 180 objects from national and international museums and private collections, the exhibition presents a cultural and scientific story of our relationship with the Moon over time and across civilisations.

The exhibition explores how humans have used, understood and observed the Moon from Earth. Visitors will get the chance to relive the momentous events of the Space Race and the Moon landings before discovering the motivations behind 21st century lunar missions.

Significant objects on display include Apollo mission artefacts that travelled to the Moon, loaned from the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C. The “Snoopy Cap” Communications Carrier, worn by astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin during Apollo 11 will be exhibited alongside the Hasselblad camera equipment that captured some of the most recognisable and iconic images of the 20th century.

Lunar samples collected from NASA’s Apollo missions and the Soviet Union’s Luna programme, are accompanied by a rare lunar meteorite from the Natural History Museum’s collection.

Historical and contemporary artworks illustrate how the Moon has long inspired artists, acting as a metaphor for the human condition.

From classic science fiction through to the defining events of the Space Race, visitors will see how the Moon went from being a distant object of observation and place of imagination to a destination that was within human reach.