Christchurch Aerospace Meet Up #8: Moon Landing 50th Anniversary

A celebratory atmosphere as we commemorated the Apollo 11 moon landing anniversary in style at Vodafone xone. We had a two metre moon featuring a hi-res lunarscape, space accoutrements and many people dressed up for the occasion.

Great content from an array of speakers:

Access To Space
Tim Searle

Senior Policy Advisor, New Zealand Space Agency

Aerospace Talent Development at the Antarctic Academy
Miranda Satterthwaite

Education Manager, International Antarctic Centre

The Apollo Missions
Roland Sommer

General Manager, TE Connectivity

Video Address to New Zealand
Anousheh Ansari

First female Private Spaceflight Participant to the International Space Station and patron of the Ansari XPRIZE. The 10 million dollar competition catalysed the suborbital space industry and spurred on companies like Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin.

The Virgin Galactic Experience
Mark Rocket

Director, Kea Aerospace. Chair, Christchurch Aerospace Centre.

Future Exploration and Development of the Moon
Eric Dahlstrom

Co-founder, SpaceBase. Co-founder, International Space Consultants. Faculty and Academic Council, International Space University

Video Address to New Zealand
Nicole Stott

NASA astronaut Nicole Stott served as Flight Engineer and Mission Specialist on two space missions to the International Space Station. She stayed on the ISS for a total of three months and brought NZ’s mascot Harold, the giraffe on the Station.

NASA JPL’s Support of Apollo
Glen Willoughby

Advisor IT/Digital Innovation, Office of the CTIO, NASA JPL. Supporting Mars 2020, Europa Clipper and Planetary Defence Programmes.

A stellar thank you to Lane Neave and EY for co-sponsoring the food and beverages. A moon-sized thank you to Roland Sommer at TE Connectivity for bringing his moon.

Thank you also to ChristchurchNZ, SpaceBase and New Zealand Students’ Space Association for working with us to organise this event.