It has been over four decades since the last Apollo mission to the moon, but those missions remain beloved in the hearts and minds of space enthusiasts even long after they happened.
Now, a NASA fan has put together a beautiful tribute to those Apollo missions by using the badges associated with every mission in a video, setting each badge off with its own animation.
Artist Neil Smith created this animated video, beginning with the vastness of space, which eventually reveals the moon and Earth, along with the large signature "A" logo of NASA's Apollo program.
We also hear President John F. Kennedy's famous speech about space exploration in 1961.
"I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth," said the President.
Then each mission's badge swoops into the frame, beginning with the first Apollo mission, which never got off the ground: that 1967 mission resulted in a fire that killed the astronauts aboard it.
In the video, the other Apollo missions follow that, including Apollo 11, the first moon landing and the patch worn by Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins. That mission gave us one of the most famous quotes of all time when Armstrong said, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" as he stepped foot on the moon.
"I've always thought it would be cool to animate all the mission patches from NASA's manned moon missions," writes Smith on the video's YouTube page. "So when looking for a short project to do while teaching myself a bit more about the Octane renderer for C4D, this seemed like the perfect choice. Lots of different materials, texturing techniques, etc."
The video ends with the patch for the last Apollo mission, in 1972, which then fades to black as the NASA logo comes up.
The Apollo missions have become an iconic part of America's culture and have even inspired films based on them, including Apollo 13, Apollo 11, From the Earth to the Moon, Space Race and Moonshot.
[Photo Credit: Ewen Roberts | Flickr]
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