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Heading for landing
The "Eagle" lunar lander undocks from the "Columbia" command module in preparation for landing. (1min 21sec file)
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The Eagle has landed!
The Apollo 11 spacecraft "Eagle" lands on the Moon 35 years ago, delivering Armstrong and Aldrin. (2min 04sec file)
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Walking on the moon
Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin step foot on the surface of the moon on July 20 1969, forever changing history. (11min 17sec file)
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Shuttle engine test
One of the liquid-fueled main engines that will power space shuttle Discovery on the return-to-flight mission next spring is test-fired at NASA's Stennis Space Center. (1min 56sec file)
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Cronkite interview
Famed CBS News anchorman Walter Cronkite recalls the Apollo 11 mission in this interview on NASA Television. (3min 15sec file)
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Apollo 11 crew interview
An interview with astronauts Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin takes viewers in a retrospective through the Apollo 11 mission. (30min 39sec file)
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Mission animation
1960's animation provides this overview of the Saturn 5 rocket and the Apollo 11 mission from launch through return to Earth. Narration is provided. (2min 43sec file)
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The rocket view
Film footage from onboard the Saturn 5 rocket captures with stunning beauty the separation of the first stage and a short adapter ring with the blue Earth as backdrop. (1min 36sec file)
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Launch of Apollo 11
On this 35th anniversary of the historic Apollo 11 mission, re-live the thrilling launch as the astronauts depart Earth for their lunar voyage. (9min 01sec file)
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Crew's launch preps
The three astronauts don their spacesuits and head for the launch pad in the final hours before liftoff of Apollo 11 on July 16, 1969. (3min 53sec file)
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Aura launched
The Boeing Delta 2 rocket launches NASA's Aura atmospheric research satellite at 3:02 a.m. local time from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. This movie following the flight from liftoff through ignition of the second stage and jettison of the payload fairing with ground cameras and infrared trackers. (5min 12sec file)
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New martian meteorite found in Antarctica
NASA NEWS RELEASE
Posted: July 20, 2004

While rovers and orbiting spacecraft scour Mars searching for clues to its past, researchers have uncovered another piece of the red planet in the most inhospitable place on Earth -- Antarctica.


Credit: NASA
 
The new specimen was found by a field party from the U.S. Antarctic Search for Meteorites program (ANSMET) on Dec. 15, 2003, on an ice field in the Miller Range of the Transantarctic Mountains, roughly 750 km (466 miles) from the South Pole. This 715.2-gram (1.6-pound) black rock, officially designated MIL 03346, was one of 1358 meteorites collected by ANSMET during the 2003-2004 austral summer.

Discovery of this meteorite occurred during the second full field season of a cooperative effort funded by NASA and supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to enhance recovery of rare meteorite types in Antarctica, in the hopes new martian samples would be found.

Scientists at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History involved in classification of Antarctic finds said the mineralogy, texture and the oxidized nature of the rock are unmistakably martian. The new specimen is the seventh recognized member of a group of martian meteorites called the nakhlites, named after the first known specimen that fell in Nakhla, Egypt, in 1911.

Like the other martian meteorites, MIL 03346 is a piece of the red planet that can be studied in detail in the laboratory, providing a critical "reality check" for use in interpreting the wealth of images and data being returned by the spacecraft currently exploring Mars. Following the existing protocols of the U.S. Antarctic meteorite program, scientists from around the world will be invited to request samples of the new specimen for their own detailed research.

Nakhlites are significant among the known martian meteorites for several reasons. Thought to have originated within thick lava flows that crystallized on Mars approximately 1.3 billion years ago, and sent to Earth by a meteorite impact about 11 million years ago, the nakhlites are among the older known martian meteorites. As a result they bear witness to significant segments of the volcanic and environmental history of Mars.

The U.S. Antarctic Meteorite program is a cooperative effort jointly supported by NSF, NASA and the Smithsonian Institution. Antarctic field work is supported by grants from NASA and NSF to Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland; initial examination and curation of recovered Antarctic meteorites is supported by NASA at the astromaterials curation facilities at Johnson Space Center in Houston; and initial characterization and long-term curation of Antarctic meteorite samples is supported by NASA and the Smithsonian Institution at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington.

Details concerning initial characterization of the specimen and sample availability are available through a special edition of the Antarctic Meteorite Newsletter, to be immediately released on the Web at: http://curator.jsc.nasa.gov/curator/antmet/amn/amn.htm.

The edition also will be mailed to researchers worldwide.