They were seen on television screens across the nation as Apollo 11 landed on the moon and Neil Armstrong took “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
Exactly 47 years after that historic day, Armstrong’s familiar blue-tipped gloves and helmet are on display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.
The fragile artifacts were last seen by the public in 2012, following Armstrong’s death. According to the museum, pieces of the spacesuit “are rotated on and off display based on their individual needs as determined by Museum collections specialists.” Components from the famous space flight are kept out of public view for preservation reasons. The gloves and helmet have been recently conserved, thanks to a successful "Reboot the Suit" Kickstarter campaign in the summer of 2015.
Armstrong's lunar extravehicular gloves and helmet will be on display until July 2017.
