The Kennedy Space Center put on sale a series of four commemorative coins of the 50th anniversary of the arrival of man on the Moon, which are celebrated this year and which were the stars of the Apollo 11 astronauts, Neil A. Armstrong, Edwin E. Aldrin and Michael Collins.
The series consists of a five-dollar gold coin, a silver dollar, a silver-plated half dollar and a five-ounce silver dollar, which can be purchased together or separately and have prices that range from almost $ 28 to more than 408 dollars.
On the obverse of the gold coin, the inscriptions “Mercury,” “Gemini” and “Apollo”, separated by phases of the Moon, plus “2019”, “In God We Trust” and “Liberty”, surround the image of the first human footprint on the lunar surface.
The reverse shows a representation of the famous photograph “Buzz Aldrin on the Moon”, captured on July 20, 1969, showing the viewfinder and part of the helmet of that astronaut.
The image of Neil Armstrong, the flag of the United States and the module in which they landed are reflected in the helmet.
The commercialization of this numismatic collection began after a ceremony on the fiftieth anniversary of Apollo 11 held on Thursday at the Visitor Center Kennedy Space Complex, which had as keynote speaker Charlie Duke, one of the Apollo 16 astronauts, to which attended veterans and directors of NASA.
Two of the three crewmembers of Apollo 11, Aldrin and Collins are still alive and are 89 and 88 years old, respectively, but Armstrong, the commander of the mission, who was the first man to set foot on Earth’s satellite, died. in 2012 at 82 years old.
“A small step for man, a great step for humanity,” was the phrase with which Armstrong defined one of the most significant events in history, which could be witnessed live by more than 600 million people throughout the world. world thanks to television.
Apollo 11, powered by a Saturn V rocket, was launched into space from the Kennedy space complex at Cape Canaveral (Florida) on July 16, 1969.
It reached the lunar surface on July 20 of the same year and the next day two astronauts (Armstrong and Aldrin) walked on the surface of the Moon, where in total they were 21 hours 36 minutes and 20 seconds.
On July 22, they returned to Earth. (EFEUSA) .-
