When the two Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon 50 years ago, the Swiss were involved in the moon landing in many ways. Four Swiss time witnesses were guests at the anniversary event "Tribute to Apollo" of the Swiss Space Museum, which took place at Kosmos Zurich in Switzerland on Saturday, 20 July.

Guido Schwarz, founder of the Swiss Space Museum, took his audience on a journey in the footsteps of the Apollo astronauts. He told their stories with original footage, photos, and artifacts from his huge collection. "On the way to the moon" he talked with his guests that were involved in the Apollo missions in different ways.

The first guest was Ruedi Fricker, member of TASA or Team Apollo Switzerland America. Together with several young adults from Gretzenbach, he simulated a 14-day journey to the moon and back in a self-built Apollo capsule. Schwarz spoke with Fricker about the experience of that time, which attracted attention beyond the village boundaries as this vintage clip from Swiss TV can attest.

Aldo Lardelli from the Kern Aarau study group told a story that until recently was hardly known: the landing of the Lunar Module "Eagle" was filmed through a Swiss lens! The Maurer Data Acquisition Camera, which hung in the right window of the lunar module, also filmed the historical moonwalk by Neil Armstrong (camera footage from the lunar module).

The third guest on the show stage was Jürg Meister, a former physicist at the University of Bern. Meister was instrumental in the development of the Solar Wind Composition experiment, the only non-American experiment that was brought to the moon by the Apollo 11 astronauts. The experiment was even set up before the American flag as this oral history video (in German) details.

Finally, Otto Eugster, a former physics professor at the University of Bern, reported on how he analyzed lunar samples of all Apollo missions at the time and was later even able to examine moon samples from the Soviet Luna probes in the laboratory.

Curious about each of their stories? Watch a recording of 'Tribute to Apollo' and explore oral history videos from the University fo Bern recording the stories of space explorers for future generations (in German). A pdf account of the event is available below.