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: The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex has announced the early-2025 opening of The Gantry at LC-39, a returning stop to its bus tour of the NASA launch site in Florida. The observation tower has been re-themed to "Off Earth, For Earth," showcasing how NASA's work supports the surrounding wildlife refuge. In addition to an Earth Information Center, The Gantry will feature a new immersive rocket engine test fire experience.
: Space Center Houston will host the U.S. premiere of "The Moonwalkers: A Journey with Tom Hanks" when the immersive film begins daily shows in February 2025. Narrated and co-written by Hanks, "The Moonwalkers" envelops audiences in the history of the Apollo program and the future of lunar exploration by the Artemis program. Space Center Houston has updated its theater to support the multi-wall production.
: National Geographic will premiere director Cristina Costantini's new feature-length documentary about the first U.S. woman in space, Sally Ride, at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah. "SALLY" examines the life and "hidden love" of the NASA astronaut, whose 27-year relationship with her partner (and the film's narrator) was kept secret from the public. The documentary features rarely-seen footage filmed on Earth and in space.
: The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) will again feature deep space images taken by the James Webb Space Telescope on its 2025 Priority Mail postage stamps. Following a pair of stamps issued earlier this year that reproduced two popular JWST images, the new issues will focus on a star cluster and spiral galaxy that Webb imaged in infrared. The 2025 Priority Mail and Express stamps will be released on Jan. 21 at a ceremony in Big Sky, Montana.
: Your doorbell today may have the same computing power as was on the Apollo spacecraft, but can it fly you to the moon? Apollo Instruments' new DSKY Moonwatch is a working replica of the display and keypad used by the astronauts to land on the moon, but shrunk down to the size of a smart watch. Using the same verb and noun interface to run the original Apollo software, the DSKY Moonwatch also works as a timepiece.
: Separated from its spacecraft for the past 55 years, the Kapton polyimide tape that once covered the Apollo 11 command module "Columbia" has since been added to numerous types of displays in commemoration of the first moon landing. This is the story of one such presentation: the one-of-a-kind wedding band crafted by the artisans at the Honest Hands Ring Company of Colorado. The ring was also made using lunar meteorite.
: Recently released documents from 1984 reveal how Ireland struggled to find homes for two moon rock displays gifted by the U.S.. Four small pieces of Apollo 11 moon dust languished in an Irish basement before arriving at an observatory where they were lost in a 1977 fire. Ireland's cut of the Apollo 17 goodwill moon rock bounced between the president's home and airport exhibits before landing in the National Museum.
