Apollo 11 Lunar Module — Handmade Metal Display Model

Eagle — the first machine to carry human beings to the surface of another world, and the strangest-looking craft ever built on purpose.

Handcrafted in metal with the Lunar Module's distinctive asymmetric geometry: the foil-wrapped descent stage, the angular ascent stage, the four landing legs and the probes beneath the footpads.

Details

• Handcrafted metal construction
• Descent and ascent stage detail
• Four landing legs with footpads and contact probes
• Hand-finished surfaces and panel detail
• Ready to display

The spacecraft

The LM was the first crewed vehicle designed to operate only in vacuum, which is why it looks the way it does — no aerodynamics were required, so nothing was streamlined. Grumman built it with walls in places thinner than a soda can.

On 20 July 1969, Eagle's computer threw a series of 1202 alarms during descent while Armstrong, seeing boulders in the target zone, flew on manually past his landing point. He touched down with roughly 25 seconds of fuel remaining. The ascent stage lifted off the next day using an engine that had exactly one chance to work and no backup.