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Apollo 50: Go for the Moon

National Mall, Washington DC

2019

"A celebration of one of humankind's greatest achievements"

Apollo 50: Go for the Moon’ was a once-in-a-lifetime public event to mark the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 voyage – the first moon landing and one of humankind’s greatest achievements.

The project was a first-of-its-kind collaboration between 59; The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum; and multi-award-winning composer Jeff Beal (House of Cards).

“We choose to go to the Moon. We choose to go to the Moon in this decade, and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”

– President John F. Kennedy

Apollo 50: Go for the Moon’ was a free-admission, large-scale public event across two evenings and an unmissable opportunity to see the Washington Monument transformed with a brand new projection-mapping artwork combining archive footage and bespoke animations to tell the remarkable story of the first lunar landing for an audience of thousands, watching on from the National Mall. Using cutting-edge technology, a 17-minute animated artwork was projected onto Washington’s iconic obelisk and surrounding screens. The artwork celebrated the hundreds and thousands of people who worked tirelessly to make this extraordinary mission possible. Their dedication along with those of their successors have allowed remarkable advancements in space exploration over the past fifty years, giving truth to the statement that: the sky is no longer the limit.

Opened 16th-20th July 2019

National Mall, Washington DC

Credits

Commissioned by
The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

Executive Producers
Katherine Moyer
Nicholas Partridge

59 Team

Director
Richard Slaney

Video Designer
Nick Corrigan

Producer
Rebecca Collis

Writer
Chris Riley
Mark Grimmer

Music by
Jeff Beal

Scenic Designer
Jenny Melville

Lighting Designer
Benjamin Pearcy

Lighting Programmer
Anthony Pearson

Sound Designer
Tom Hackley

Assistant Producer
Hope Delicata

Animators
David Curtis
Sean Kothe
Emily Howells
Marco Sandeman
Edd Stockton

Editor
Edmund Saunders

Assistant Video Designer
Matthew Taylor

Assistant Video Designer
Felix Green

Design Intern
Flora Macleod

Graphic Designer
Dale Croft

Architectural Assistant
Ayanna Blair-Ford

Production Managers
James Roxburgh
Reid Santabarbara
Jo Athroll

System Engineer
Max Spielbichler

Video Programmer
Sam Jeffs
Iain Syme

Runner
Justin Johnson

Venue Sound Engineer
Josh Millican

Soundtrack recorded by
Hollywood Studio Symphony

Solo Violin
Mark Robertson

Orchestra Contractor
David Low

Orchestrations
Marco Valerio Antonini

Video Equipment
DWP Live

Lighting Equipment
Atmosphere Inc

Event infrastructure
Event Tech
Linder Global