DESTINATION MOON AT THE OF FLIGHT Rich Lienesch, The Museum of Flight Associate Director, Education Department 9404 East Marginal Way South, , WA 98108 [email protected]

The Museum of Flight in Seattle is the world's largest independent, non-profit air and space museum. Our mission is to be the foremost educational air and space museum in the world. To that end, we serve over 600,000 visitors annually. The Museum features over 450,000 sq ft of exhibit space, celebrating the past, present and future of aviation and aerospace. As the foremost educational air and space museum, the Museum regularly serves more than 160,000 learners in our education initiatives. The Museum’s Academy for STEM Learning offers a wide range of programs both on and off site for students of all ages, from short experiences for the youngest learners, to courses that offer high school and college credits, and outreach programs delivered all around the world. A number of our popular programs focus specifically on astronomy, the Moon, and the history and science of space exploration. For the anniversary, the museum will continue to deliver a high volume of these standard programs, and will revise a number of programs to have an added focus on the importance of Apollo and the future of lunar and planetary exploration. The Museum of Flight is one of four in the world to host Destination Moon: The Mission, an exhibition from the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Services and the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in D.C., from April 13-September 2, 2019. This special exhibition features the Apollo 11 command module Columbia, as well as more than 20 one-of-a-kind artifacts from this groundbreaking mission. The Museum is creating a multi-language Visitor Guide for Destination Moon, and exhibit enhancements for the visually impaired to better serve our audiences. Myriad public programs will be offered to ensure a wide range of audiences can access the exhibit and associated content. We are honored to celebrate and commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 Mission, July 16 - July 24, 2019. We are working with local, regional and national science and cultural institutions on a series of community engagement events to make 2019 the “Seattle Summer of Space” and celebrate July 19, 20, 21, 2019 as a 3 day flagship event. Additionally, the Museum will celebrate the opening and closing weeks of the exhibit, and a number of other important milestones and anniversaries, with special events and partner programming, Apollo era celebrity guests, and various performances.