The Lunar Module was the lander portion of the Apollo spacecraft, the first and only manned vehicle to visit another world.
On Sunday March 3rd, 2019, on the 50th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 9, we will open our new Space Explorers Hall at The Exploration Museum on the north coast of Iceland. The centerpiece of the new exhibition will be a full size replica of the Apollo Lunar Module. Apollo 9 was the maiden manned flight of the Lunar Module in Earth Orbit, but 2019 will also mark the 50th anniversary of the first LEM in orbit around the Moon on Apollo 10 and the first landing on the Moon, on the historic journey of Apollo 11.
Why build a Lunar Module in Iceland?
In 1965 and 1967, two groups of Apollo astronauts were sent to Iceland for geology field training. The Exploration Museum has been documenting this story since 2009.
The new Lunar Module will be built in Iceland by students of the metalwork and mechanical engineering department of Akureyri Comprehensive College, under the guidence of professional metal workers and with help from experts in the design of the Lunar Modules.
The original Lunar Modules were built for the Apollo program by the Grumman company in Long Island, to carry a crew of two from lunar orbit to the surface of the Moon and back. Designed for lunar orbit rendezvous, they consisted of an ascent stage and descent stage, and were ferried to lunar orbit by its companion Command and Service Module, a separate spacecraft of approximately twice its mass, which also took the astronauts home to Earth.
