THE story of how a Bradfordian ensured that the world saw the first moon landing is told in an exhibition marking the 50th anniversary of the historic event.

It was 50 years ago this month that Neil Armstrong and the crew of the Apollo 11 mission landed on and broadcast from the moon.

The National Science and Media Museum’s exhibition, Hello Universe, takes an interactive look at how information from the cosmos has been recorded over centuries, in particular the five decades of space exploration following Armstrong's ‘giant leap’ in 1969.

Looking at how technology was developed to transmit live pictures from the moon a quarter-of-a-million miles back to earth, the exhibition highlights Bradford-born Mike Dinn’s significant role in the broadcast of the Apollo 11 mission. Mr Dinn, who emigrated to Australia, was Deputy Director of Operations at Honeysuckle Creek tracking station in Canberra, Australia, which received the images of Armstrong’s historic moment and made them available to be televised worldwide, gaining the largest ever TV audience to that date.

Mr Dinn, who still lives in Australia, will be live via Skype for a screening of The Dish starring Sam Neill, telling the story of the images being received in Australia when NASA discovered that the station in California could have problems with positioning. The screening is on Saturday at 5.30pm.

Hello Universe also includes an original copy of Galileo's 1610 book Starry Messenger, one of the world's earliest astronomical books, and his hand drawings of the moon from the 17th century. Galileo Galilei was one of the first people to view the moon through a telescope, making detailed drawings.

Also featured are space-related objects related from the 1960s onwards, from the collection of a trustee of the Institute of Physics who watched the 1969 landings on TV as a schoolboy and filmed the screen with a Super 8 camera.

Visitors can build LEGO spacecrafts, learn about stargazing from the West Yorkshire Astronomical Society and create a bulletin in the style of the Arecibo interstellar radio message transmitted from earth in 1974. Displays include a half-size scale model of Viking, NASA’s first Mars lander, latest images of the cosmos projected onto a 5m x 3m screen, data from NASA’s Pioneer, Voyager and Cassini missions, and photographs from NASA’s Voyager probes.

Curator Annie Jamieson said: “Throughout history there’s evidence of humankind’s fascination with the moon and stars, leading us to today’s exploration of the furthest reaches of our solar system and beyond. This exhibition looks at the incredible technology that allows us to see, hear, even smell space.”

* Hello Universe opens on Friday and runs until January 22, 2020.

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