Apollo 11 in popular culture

The mission was extensively covered in the press. Over 53.5 million US households tuned in to watch the Apollo 11 mission across the two weeks it was on TV, making it the most watched TV programming up to that date. An estimated 650 million viewers worldwide watched the first steps on the Moon.{{cite web|title=Apollo 11 Mission Overview|url=https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/missions/apollo11.html|website=NASA|date=17 April 2015 |access-date=27 February 2016}}{{cite web|url=http://www.tvobscurities.com/2009/07/apollo-11-footage-missing/|title=Television Obscurities – Apollo 11 Footage Missing|date=20 July 2009 }}{{cite web|url=http://americanradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1969/1969-09-01-BC.pdf#page=50|title=Broadcasting Magazine, pg 50 – Apollo 11 turns out as biggest show on earth}}

After their return, the astronauts went on what was called the "Giant Leap" tour, visiting 23 countries in 38 days.{{sfn|Buckley|2019|p=124}} Starting in Mexico City, where they donned sombreros and were given a second parade, their tour took them through South America, to Spain, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Germany, England, and Vatican City.{{sfn|Buckley|2019|p=124}} After a rest in the U.S. embassy in Rome they went on to Turkey and Africa.{{sfn|Buckley|2019|p=124}}

In Zaire, Buzz Aldrin leaped over the barricade between him and some entertainers and joined in with their dancing.{{sfn|Buckley|2019|p=124}}

Missing from the tour was Hungary, which rejected the United States's invitation to host the astronauts.{{sfn|Maksel|2014}}

Relations between Hungary and the United States were strained at the time, as the Hungarian crown jewels had been taken into U.S. custody after the Second World War and would not be returned until 1978.{{sfn|Maksel|2014}}

{{further|Apollo 11 anniversaries}}

Many countries have issued stamps commemorating the mission.

The United States issued a {{USD|2.40}} stamp commemorating the 20th anniversary in 1989, a stamp for the 25th anniversary, and a 33¢ stamp commemorating the 30th anniversary in 1999.{{sfn|Cavallaro|2018|p=285}}{{sfn|NPM|1}}

The 20th anniversary stamp caused some concern when it was issued, as the law forbade living people from being depicted on stamps, and the image was of two astronauts planting a U.S. flag on the Moon.{{sfn|NPM|1}}

However, it was never actually officially stated by the USPS that the figures were specifically Armstrong and Aldrin, and not just generic astronaut figures.{{sfn|NPM|1}}

Other stamps issued included a 10¢ stamp on 1969-09-09 showing an astronaut descending a ladder from a lunar module, and the {{USD|9.95}} anniversary stamp issued in 1994.{{sfn|NPM|1}}

The 1969 stamp art was by Paul Calle, the 1989 art by his son, and the 1994 one by both.{{sfn|NPM|2}}

The postal service of Eire issued a commemorative {{Euro|1}} stamp for the 50th anniversary in 2019, but misspelled the word "gealach" (Gaelic for "Moon") as "gaelach" ("Irish"), an accidental transposition during design that was not caught in proof.{{sfn|BBC|2019}}

The USPS issued two 50th anniversary stamps as part of its "Forever" collection, one a photograph of the Moon with the landing site marked, and the other one of Armstrong's pictures of Aldrin.{{sfn|Carter|2019}}

The astronauts themselves had, before the mission, signed what were called "insurance covers", stamped envelopes that were essentially life insurance in the form of memorabilia that family members could sell off in the events of the astronauts' deaths.{{sfn|Cavallaro|2018|pp=286,291}}

This practice would continue through to Apollo 16.{{sfn|Dixey|2008|p=60}}

Armstrong and Aldrin also cancelled a commemorative stamp whilst on the surface of the Moon.{{sfn|AA|1971|p=232}}

Originally, they were to have done this reciting pre-scripted dialogue that had been supplied by USPS public relations.{{sfn|AA|1971|p=232}}

But the supplied script was lengthy and stilted, the Washington Post commenting that it would have lasted "for the better part of one orbit of the moon" and resulted in "a veritable barrage of phone calls from a flabbergasted public", and NASA decided that the astronauts had enough to do; so the stamping was without ceremony.{{sfn|AA|1971|p=232}}

File:Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in February 2022 (83).jpeg statue, by George Lundeen, Mark Lundeen, and Joey Bainer (2019), exhibited at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex]]

The United States of America acknowledged the success of Apollo 11 with a national day of celebration on Monday, July 21, 1969.{{Cite web |title=Apollo 11 |url=https://www.planetary.org/space-missions/apollo-11 |access-date=2023-11-10 |website=The Planetary Society}} All but emergency and essential employees were allowed a paid day off from work, in both government{{Cite web |title=Proclamation 3919—National Day of Participation Honoring the Apollo 11 Mission {{!}} The American Presidency Project |url=https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/proclamation-3919-national-day-participation-honoring-the-apollo-11-mission |access-date=2023-11-10 |website=www.presidency.ucsb.edu}} and the private sector. The last time this had happened was the national day of mourning on Monday, November 25, 1963, to observe the state funeral of President John F. Kennedy, who had set the political goal to put a man on the Moon by the end of the 1960s and bring him back to Earth safely.

A replica of the footprint left by Neil Armstrong is located at Tranquillity Park in Houston, Texas.{{Cite web |last=SERVICES |first=HITS-GIS |date=2023-09-12 |title=Houston Historic Walk |url=https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/f8fec207798e4ff1a8316b19a29a5578 |access-date=2023-11-10 |website=ArcGIS StoryMaps}} The park was dedicated in summer of 1979, a decade after the first Moon landing. In 2019 Buzz Aldrin's well-known photograph of his own footprint was depicted on the Apollo 11 50th Anniversary commemorative coins.{{Cite web |title=Apollo 11 commemorative coin puts its best moon foot forward |url=https://www.cnet.com/science/apollo-11-commemorative-coin-puts-its-best-moon-foot-forward/ |access-date=2023-11-10 |website=CNET}}

The Apollo 11 Cave in Namibia was named after the flight upon its successful return to Earth.{{Cite journal |last=Masson |first=John |date=2006 |title=Apollo 11 Cave in Southwest Namibia: Some Observations on the Site and Its Rock Art |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3888908 |journal=The South African Archaeological Bulletin |volume=61 |issue=183 |pages=76–89 |jstor=3888908 |issn=0038-1969}}

A statue of Neil Armstrong by Jon Hair was unveiled at the University of Southern California in 2013, and The Eagle Has Landed, a 2019 sculpture designed by George Lundeen, Mark Lundeen, and Joey Bainer, is exhibited at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.

{{clear}}

• The 1969 documentary film, Footprints on the Moon by Bill Gibson and Barry Coe, is about the Apollo 11 mission.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/35629847/pittsburgh_postgazette/|title=Moon Landing Film Coming to Theaters|newspaper=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette|location=Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania|date=September 1, 1969|page=69|via=Newspapers.com}}
• The 1971 documentary Moonwalk One is a film by Theo Kamecke.{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/may/25/apollo-11-anniversary|title=The moon shoot: film of Apollo mission on show again after 35 years in the can|last1=Jones|first1=Sam|date=May 25, 2009 |website=The Guardian |access-date=September 5, 2019}}
• Footage of the landing famously introduced viewers to MTV in 1981, and served as its top and bottom of the hour identifier during the cable channel's early years. MTV producers Alan Goodman and Fred Seibert used this public domain footage to associate MTV with the most famous moment in worldwide television history.{{cite magazine|date=May 1999 |title=The 100 Greatest Moments in Rock Music: The '80s|magazine=Entertainment Weekly |url=https://ew.com/article/1999/05/28/100-greatest-moments-rock-music-80s/|url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081110072707/http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,273505,00.html |archive-date=2008-11-10|access-date=2008-06-25}}{{Cite web |author=Suzanne Nuyen |date=July 16, 2019 |title=Apollo 11 moon landing remains one of the most watched TV moments |url=https://www.wusa9.com/article/tech/science/aerospace/apollo-11/apollo-11-moon-landing-remains-one-of-the-most-watched-tv-moments/507-84a186d0-4330-41a5-9a4b-c2134d6fa3e2 |access-date=2023-11-10 |website=wusa9.com}} MTV also pays tribute to the classic ID by handing out astronaut statuettes (or "Moonmen") at its annual Video Music Awards.
• There is a brief mention of the Moon landing in the first season of the original Star Trek series in the episode "Tomorrow is Yesterday" in early 1967.
• In the 1995 film Apollo 13, based on the real mission, Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert, Fred Haise, Ken Mattingly, Pete Conrad, and Marilyn Lovell gather in the Lovell household to watch Neil Armstrong's Apollo 11 moonwalk. Later in the film, as the crew pass around the Moon, Haise points out that they're passing over the Mare Tranquillitatis and refers to it as "Neil and Buzz's old neighborhood". Armstrong and Aldrin talk to and distract Lovell's mother as she watches news reports of her son's endangered mission.
• The 1996 television docudrama Apollo 11 filmed some of its scenes in the original Apollo Mission Control Center.{{Cite web |date=2019-03-07 |title=National Archives Film Footage Fuels Apollo 11 Film |url=https://www.archives.gov/news/articles/apollo-11-footage-debuts-in-new-documentary |access-date=2023-11-10 |website=National Archives}}
• Portions of the Apollo 11 mission are dramatized in the 1998 HBO mini-series From the Earth to the Moon in the "Mare Tranquilitatis" episode.
• The second episode of Futurama, "The Series Has Landed" (1999) has Fry and Leela take refuge in the Eagle (which had since been returned to the Moon) to shelter from the cold night of the Moon. Fry finds one of Neil Armstrong's footprints, which he steps on.
• Man on the Moon, a 2006 television opera in one act by Jonathan Dove with a libretto by Nicholas Wright, relates the story of the Apollo 11 Moon landing and the subsequent problems experienced by Buzz Aldrin.{{Citation |title=Man on the Moon: Opera | date=24 December 2007 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mf5vRee3uSE |access-date=2023-11-10}}
• The 2009 television film Moonshot depicts the preparation for the Apollo 11 mission.{{Citation |last=Dale |first=Richard |title=Moonshot |date=2009-07-20 |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1251357/ |type=Drama, History |access-date=2023-11-10 |others=Daniel Lapaine, James Marsters, Andrew Lincoln |publisher=Dangerous Films}}
• The Apollo 11 mission is used as a backdrop and plot device in the Doctor Who two-parter{{Cite web |date=April 11, 2011 |title=Matt Smith Video and New Series Overview |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/dw/news/bulletin_110411_01/Matt_Smith_Video_and_New_Series_Overview |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110414073541/http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/dw/news/bulletin_110411_01/Matt_Smith_Video_and_New_Series_Overview |archive-date=April 14, 2011 |website=BBC}} "The Impossible Astronaut"/"Day of the Moon".{{Cite magazine |last=McLaughlin |first=Helene |title=Doctor Who: Day of the Moon - A Recap |url=https://www.wired.com/2011/05/doctor-who-day-of-the-moon-a-recap/ |access-date=2024-07-03 |magazine=Wired |language=en-US |issn=1059-1028}}
• The Apollo 11 mission is used as part of the main story line in the 2011 film Transformers: Dark of the Moon. The movie described the mission and the main reason for the Apollo program's existence as a means to investigate an alien landing on the far side of the Moon.{{cite news |last1=Sciretta |first1=Peter |title=Neil Armstrong Explains Why Transformers 3's Lunar Stroll Wasn't Possible |url=https://www.slashfilm.com/512663/neil-armstrong-explains-transformers-3/ |access-date=December 3, 2021 |work=SlashFilm |date=December 10, 2010}} Aldrin has a brief cameo in the film.{{cite news |last1=Stevens |first1=Dana |title=Transformers: Dark of the Moon reviewed: Michael Bay finally defeats the audience! |url=https://slate.com/culture/2011/06/transformers-dark-of-the-moon-reviewed-michael-bay-finally-defeats-the-audience.html |access-date=December 3, 2021 |work=Slate Magazine |date=June 29, 2011}}
• In the 2012 film Men in Black 3, Apollo 11 was used by Agent K to carry the Arc Net (a shield that protects Earth from Alien invasion) to space. The three astronauts see the Men in Black fighting the alien villain from the cockpit, but Buzz Aldrin realizes that if they report this to Mission Control the launch will be aborted. Armstrong nonchalantly responds to Aldrin that "I didn't see anything", and Michael Collins apparently agreed as well.{{Cite magazine |last=Yorker |first=The New |date=2012-05-25 |title="Men in Black 3": The Uses of the Past |magazine=The New Yorker |url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/men-in-black-3-the-uses-of-the-past |access-date=2023-11-06 |issn=0028-792X}}
• The last episode of the 2015 television series The Astronaut Wives Club, "Landing", features the Apollo 11 mission.{{Citation |title=The Astronaut Wives Club (TV Series 2015) - Episode list - IMDb |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3530726/episodes?season=1 |access-date=2023-11-10}}
• In Ready Jet Go!{{'}}s 2016 episode, "Earth Mission to Moon", Jet, Sean, Sydney, Mindy, Celery, and Carrot, re-enact the Apollo 11 mission. Jet, Sean, and Sydney portray the Apollo 11 astronauts, and Carrot and Mindy depict the people at Mission Control. In this re-enactment, Sean plays Neil Armstrong.{{Cite web |title=Mission to the Moon/Mindy′s Moon Bounce House - Ready Jet Go! |url=http://nhpbs.org/schedule/summary.aspx |access-date=2023-11-10 |website=NHPBS}}
• The Apollo 11 mission appears in the 2016 season 1 episode "Space Race" of the NBC series Timeless. In the episode, Lucy, Wyatt, and Rufus travel to the day of the mission, July 20, 1969, to stop Garcia Flynn from interfering with the mission. After Flynn's helper, Anthony Bruhl, launches a modern-day virus against NASA, which prevents the staff from communicating with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, Rufus and Lucy get help from Mathematician Katherine Johnson to stop the virus and Flynn before it is too late.{{Citation |last=Beeson |first=Charles |title=Space Race |date=2016-11-28 |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6209428/ |access-date=2023-11-10 |series=Timeless |others=Abigail Spencer, Matt Lanter, Malcolm Barrett}}
• The 2018 film First Man depicts Armstrong and Aldrin as they prepare for, and then accomplish, the Apollo 11 mission.{{Cite web |title=Watch First Man {{!}} Prime Video |url=https://www.amazon.com/First-Man-Ryan-Gosling/dp/B07J253VYL |access-date=2023-11-10 |website=www.amazon.com}}
• The 2019 documentary Apollo 11 is a film by Todd Douglas Miller with restored footage of the 1969 event.{{cite news |last=Kenny |first=Glenn |title='Apollo 11' Review: The 1969 Moon Mission Still Has the Power to Thrill |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/27/movies/apollo-11-review.html |date=February 27, 2019 |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=February 28, 2019}}{{cite magazine|url=https://variety.com/2019/film/news/apollo-11-documentary-imax-release-1203138469/|title='Apollo 11' Documentary Gets Exclusive Imax Release|magazine=Variety|date=February 13, 2019 |last1=Rubin|first1=Rebecca|access-date=July 20, 2019}}
• 1969, a 2019 documentary series, devotes its first episode, "Moon Shot", to the Apollo 11 mission.{{Cite web |title='1969': The summer of the moon landing, Chappaquiddick, Charles Manson, Woodstock, Nixon, gay rights, Black Power movement |url=https://abcnews.go.com/US/1969-summer-moon-landing-chappaquiddick-charles-manson-woodstock/story?id=62438352 |access-date=2023-11-10 |website=ABC News}}
• "Moondust", the 2019 seventh episode of the third season of the Netflix series The Crown, includes extensive scenes of the British royal family watching the original BBC coverage of the Apollo 11 mission. It also includes a fictionalized portrayal of the private meeting of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, with the Apollo 11 crew during their visit to Buckingham Palace, and the prince's admiration for the Apollo astronauts.{{Citation |last=Hobbs |first=Jessica |title=Moondust |date=2019-11-17 |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8071424/ |access-date=2023-11-10 |series=The Crown |others=Olivia Colman, Tobias Menzies, Helena Bonham Carter}}{{Cite news |last=Karasz |first=Palko |date=2019-11-19 |title='The Crown': The History Behind Season 3 on Netflix |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/19/arts/television/the-crown-season-3-netflix-history.html |access-date=2023-11-10 |issn=0362-4331}}
• Chasing the Moon, a July 2019 PBS three-night six-hour documentary, directed by Robert Stone, examines the events leading up to the Apollo 11 mission,{{cite web |last1=Foust |first1=Jeff |title=Review: Chasing the Moon |url=https://spacenews.com/review-chasing-the-moon/ |website=Space News|date=9 July 2019 |access-date=July 12, 2019}} the mission itself, and its legacy.
• The 2023 film Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny takes place in 1969 and the New York parade for the Apollo 11 crew is directly related to the plot.{{cite web | last=Travis | first=Ben | title=Indiana Jones 5 Will Pit Indy Against Nazis Again, In 1969 – Exclusive | website=Empire | date=November 19, 2022 | url=https://www.empireonline.com/movies/news/indiana-jones-5-nazis-1969-exclusive/ | access-date=December 23, 2022}}
• The 2024 film Fly Me to the Moon focuses on the Apollo 11 mission, telling the fictional story of a marketing specialist tasked with filming a staged version of the moon landing should the real one be unsuccessful.

• The Byrds 1969 album Ballad of Easy Rider contains the song "Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins" and uses the mission's countdown sequence.{{cite news |last1=Heller |first1=Jason |title=The Moon Landing Inspired Pink Floyd's Most Overlooked Song |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2019/07/apollo-11-pink-floyd-moonhead/594343/ |access-date=July 21, 2021 |work=The Atlantic |date=July 20, 2019}}
• Thomas Bergersen's 2021 album Humanity, Chapter IV contains the song "Apollo", which includes two voiceover clips from President John F. Kennedy's 1962 "We choose to go to the Moon" speech and the mission's countdown sequence, as well as Neil Armstrong's "The Eagle has landed" near the end of the song.{{Cite web |title=Chapter IV {{!}} Humanity {{!}} Thomas Bergersen |url=https://www.thomasbergersen.com/album/humanity/chapter-iv/ |access-date=2023-08-13 |website=Thomas Bergersen}}

• In the Touhou Project series, the Apollo 11 crew's arrival and subsequent planting of the American flag on the lunar surface (hence 'claiming' it) is interpreted by the inhabitants of the Moon as an invasion, provoking the 'Lunar War'. The lunarians engage in acts of sabotage, by which they succeed in preventing humans from establishing a foothold on the Moon.
• Team Fortress 2's Pyromania Update Day 1's blogpost mentions the Apollo 11 mission was delayed by three years when Buzz Aldrin suplexed Neil Armstrong into a pile of folding chairs at an event called 'Astromania'.{{cite web|url=https://www.teamfortress.com/pyromania/doomsday/|title=Pyromania Update Day 1's Doomsday blogpost|author=Valve|access-date=August 16, 2024}}

{{See also|Moon landing conspiracy theories in popular culture|Third-party evidence for Apollo Moon landings

}}

Soon after the mission a conspiracy theory arose that the landing was a hoax, a theory widely discounted by historians and scientists.Plait 2002, pp. 154–173{{cite web |url=http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/news/apollo-sites.html |title=NASA Spacecraft Images Offer Sharper Views of Apollo Landing Sites |last1=Neal-Jones |first1=Nancy |last2=Zubritsky |first2=Elizabeth |last3=Cole |first3=Steve |editor-last=Garner |editor-first=Robert |date=September 6, 2011 |publisher=NASA |id=Goddard Release No. 11-058 (co-issued as NASA HQ Release No. 11-289) |access-date=September 22, 2011}}{{cite web |url=http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/news/index.php?/archives/620-Question-Answered!.html |title=LRO slewed 19° down-Sun allowing the illuminated side of the still standing American flag to be captured at the Apollo 17 landing site. M113751661L |last=Robinson |first=Mark |publisher=LROC News System |date=July 27, 2012 |type=Caption |access-date=April 29, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121024061649/http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/news/index.php?%2Farchives%2F620-Question-Answered%21.html |archive-date=October 24, 2012 |url-status=dead }} It may have gained more popularity after the 1978 film Capricorn One portrayed a fictional NASA attempt to fake a landing on Mars.{{cite magazine |url=https://www.wired.com/wired/archive/2.09/moon.land.html?pg=5 |title=The Wrong Stuff |last=van Bakel |first=Rogier |magazine=Wired |publisher=Condé Nast Publications |location=New York |issue=9 |date=September 1994 |volume=2 |page=5 |access-date=August 13, 2009}}

There is a humorous and ribald urban legend that when Armstrong was a child, the wife of a neighbor named Gorsky, when asked by her husband to perform oral sex, had ridiculed him by saying "...when the kid next door walks on the Moon!" and then decades later while walking on the Moon, Armstrong supposedly said "Good luck, Mr. Gorsky". In 1995 Armstrong said he first heard the story in California when comedian Buddy Hackett told it as a joke.{{snopes | link = http://www.snopes.com/quotes/mrgorsky.htm | title = Good luck, Mr Gorsky! }} A short film based on the legend was released in 2011.{{Cite web |title=Good Luck, Mr. Gorski |url=https://www.torinofilmfest.org/en/29-torino-film-festival/film/good-luck,-mr.-gorski/9235/ |access-date=2024-07-03 |website=Torino Film Fest |language=en-US}}

A 1970 United States congressional hearing noted that "all countries which had the technical capability of telecasting Apollo 11 live did so."{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Hynf93BEDcwC&q=libya |title=NASA Authorization for Fiscal Year 1971 Hearings, Ninety-First Congress, Second Session on S. 3374 |publisher=United States Government Printing Office |year=1970 |pages=1015 |access-date= |via=Google Books}}

Australia played a major role in broadcasting the Moon landing, with the highest quality footage of the moonwalk being received by Australian stations.

Honeysuckle Creek pictures were used for the first eight minutes of Neil Armstrong's moonwalk, as the Parkes station did not have a clear view of the Moon. After eight minutes the Moon was in view for the Parkes station, which took over for the rest of the moonwalk.{{Cite news |date=2022-07-21 |title=A picture in time: Australia’s part in the moon landing |url=https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/jul/21/a-picture-in-time-australias-part-in-the-moon-landing |access-date=2025-05-07 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}

All three major American broadcast networks, CBS, NBC and ABC had live coverage of the Moon landing. In the United States, 94 percent of people watching television were tuned into the event.{{Cite news |last=Hsu |first=Tiffany |date=2019-07-15 |title=The Apollo 11 Mission Was Also a Global Media Sensation |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/15/business/media/apollo-11-television-media.html |access-date=2024-06-29 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}

{{Main|British television Apollo 11 coverage}}

British television coverage of the Apollo 11 mission lasted from 16 to 24 July 1969 on all three UK television channels, BBC1, BBC2 and ITV. Most of the footage covering the event from a British perspective has now been wiped or lost.{{cite web |title=BBC Apollo 11 Moon Landing Coverage |url=http://www.tvhistory.btinternet.co.uk/html/moon_tv_cov.html |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110723002705/http://www.tvhistory.btinternet.co.uk/html/moon_tv_cov.html |archivedate=23 July 2011 |accessdate=18 February 2008 |publisher=British TV History}}{{cite web| title = Audio and visual material currently in existence| publisher = British TV History| url= http://www.tvhistory.btinternet.co.uk/html/moon_recordings.html| archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110723002739/http://www.tvhistory.btinternet.co.uk/html/moon_recordings.html| archivedate=23 July 2011}}

By the time of the Apollo 11 mission in July 1969, the two islands were each network-capable via microwave link, but the link over Cook Strait had not been completed, and there was no link between New Zealand and the outside world. Footage of the Moon landing was recorded on video tape at the Australian Broadcasting Commission's ABN-2 in Sydney, then rushed by an RNZAF English Electric Canberra to Wellington and WNTV1.{{Cite web |title=Apollo 11 TV – as seen in New Zealand |url=https://www.honeysucklecreek.net/Apollo_11/New_Zealand_TV.html |access-date=2024-06-29 |website=www.honeysucklecreek.net}} To forward this to the South Island, the NZBC positioned one of its first outside broadcasting vans to beam the footage to a receiving dish across Cook Strait, from which it was forwarded through the recently commissioned South Island network.

When the Apollo 11 landing occurred some communist countries (Soviet Union, North Korea and the People's Republic of China) did not broadcast live television footage of it.{{Cite web |date=August 15, 2019 |title=Reporting from the other side of the Iron Curtain |url=https://www.fau.eu/2019/08/15/news/research/reporting-from-the-other-side-of-the-iron-curtain/ |access-date=September 26, 2024 |website=FAU}} Although the Soviet Union did not broadcast the news live, it did broadcast footage of the launch four hours later on "the main Soviet evening television news show" discussed the launch and played footage of it.{{Cite book |last=United States Congress Senate Foreign Relations |first= |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Radio_Free_Europe_and_Radio_Liberty/tRWwmGZQF-0C?hl=en&gbpv=0 |title=Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty: Hearings ..., 93-1, June 12 and 23, 1973 |date= |publisher=United States Government Printing Office |year=1973 |pages=40 |language=en |via=Google Books}} Footage of the landing was broadcast in the Soviet Union.{{Cite book |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/NASA_Authorization_for_Fiscal_Year_1971/Hynf93BEDcwC?hl=en&gbpv=0 |title=NASA Authorization for Fiscal Year 1971 Hearings, Ninety-First Congress, Second Session on S. 3371 |publisher=United States Government Printing Office |year=1970 |pages=1031 |via=Google Books}}

Communist countries in Europe which covered the Moon landing on television live were: Yugoslavia, Romania,{{Cite book |last=Grampp |first=Sven |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V5EXEQAAQBAJ |title=Messages from the Moon: A Global History of the First Manned Moon Landing |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=2024 |isbn=978-3-658-44518-8 |via=Google Books}} Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland and Czechoslovakia.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Hynf93BEDcwC&q=libya |title=NASA Authorization for Fiscal Year 1971 Hearings, Ninety-First Congress, Second Session on S. 3374 |publisher=United States Government Printing Office |year=1970 |pages=1031}}

Morocco, Libya and Tunisia played live news coverage of the event.

Indian electronic media of that era was largely confined to radio. It is reported that the broadcasts were not synchronous with the Apollo 11 flight. For example, the AIR Madras radio service, which was relaying from the Voice of America’s commentary on the Apollo 11 take-off on 16 July, cut off its relay “exactly at 7pm. Whereas the take-off took place only at 7.02pm." The radio service instead switched to Thirai Ganam—a film songs programme.{{cite web |title=Dream of ages comes true |url=https://lifestyle.livemint.com/news/talking-point/dream-of-ages-comes-true-111641447463444.html |website=livemint.com |publisher=Live Mint |access-date=15 October 2024}}

{{portal|Spaceflight}}

• Apollo in Real Time
• Apollo 11 anniversaries
• Eisenhower dollar
• Susan B. Anthony dollar
• Moon landings in fiction

{{reflist}}

• {{cite book|title=Michael Collins: Discovering History's Heroes|author1-first=James|author1-last=Buckley|publisher=Simon and Schuster|year=2019|isbn=9781534424807}}
• {{cite book|title=The Race to the Moon Chronicled in Stamps, Postcards, and Postmarks: A Story of Puffery vs. the Pragmatic|series=Springer Praxis Books|author1-first=Umberto|author1-last=Cavallaro|publisher=Springer|year=2018|isbn=9783319921532}}
• {{cite book|title=Heritage Auctions Space Exploration Auction Catalog #6007|editor1-first=Marsha|editor1-last=Dixey|publisher=Heritage Capital Corporation|year=2008|isbn=9781599672892}}
• {{cite web|url=https://postalmuseum.si.edu/exhibition/long-may-it-wave-conflict-and-exploration/one-small-step-for-man|title=One Small Step for Man|publisher=Smithsonian: National Postal Museum|ref={{harvid|NPM|1}}}}
• {{cite web|url=https://postalmuseum.si.edu/exhibition/stamps-take-flight-creating-america%E2%80%99s-stamps-full-color-gravure/moon-landing-stamps|title=Moon Landing Stamps|publisher=Smithsonian: National Postal Museum|ref={{harvid|NPM|2}}}}
• {{cite magazine|magazine=Smithsonian|title=In 1969, One Nation Refused a Visit by the First Moonwalkers|author1-first=Rebecca|author1-last=Maksel|date=2014-04-16|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/astronaut-and-crown-affair-180951126/}}
• {{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-49085026|title=Irish moon landing stamp spells 'moon' wrong|date=2019-07-23|newspaper=BBC News |ref={{sfnref|BBC|2019}}}}
• {{cite magazine|title=Buzz Aldrin Dominates Apollo 11 First Moon Landing Stamps But Can You Spot First Man Neil Armstrong?|author1-first=Jamie|author1-last=Carter|date=2019-03-21|magazine=Forbes}}
• {{cite book|ref={{harvid|AA|1971}}|title=Astronautics and Aeronautics|issue=4016|publisher=United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration|year=1971|id=NASA SP-4016}}
• {{cite book|title=Quincy Jones: His Life in Music|series=American Made Music|author1-first=Clarence Bernard|author1-last=Henry|publisher=University Press of Mississippi|year=2013|isbn=9781617038624}}
• {{cite book|title=The Canadian Fantastic in Focus: New Perspectives|editor1-first=Allan|editor1-last=Weiss|publisher=McFarland|year=2014|isbn=9780786495924|chapter=From "Space Oddity" to Canadian reality|author1-last=Fournier|author1-first=Isabelle}}
• {{cite book|title=Music in Science Fiction Television: Tuned to the Future|editor1-first=Kevin J.|editor1-last=Donnelly|editor2-first=Philip|editor2-last=Hayward|author1-first=Philip|author1-last=Hayward|publisher=Routledge|year=2013|isbn=9780415641074|chapter=Whimsical complexity: Music and Sound Design in The Clangers}}
• {{cite book|chapter=Screening the "Wrong Stuff": Cinemativ re-inscriptions of idealised masculinity|title=The Astronaut: Cultural Mythology and Idealised Masculinity|author1-first=Dario|author1-last=Llinares|publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing|year=2011|isbn=9781443831383}}

{{Project Apollo}}

Category:Science in popular culture

Category:Fiction about outer space

Category:United States in popular culture

Category:Apollo 11

Category:Cultural depictions of Neil Armstrong

Category:Cultural depictions of Buzz Aldrin

Category:Cultural depictions of Michael Collins (astronaut)