Hammond Public Library celebrates space exploration with 2 movies in June

Contributed By:The 411 News

The early beginnings of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and its Apollo space program that put the first man on the Moon are retold in two movies showing at the Hammond Public Library in June.

2019 is the 50th anniversary of the 1969 Apollo 11 Moon landing.

Showing on Saturday, June 15 is Hidden Figures, the 2016 movie that told the story of a team of female African-American mathematicians who worked for NASA as ‘computers.’ That was the name the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics, which later became NASA, gave to its division of employees, mostly women, who calculated trajectories and orbits of rockets. Famous among those was the rocket launch in 1962 that took John Glenn into three orbits around the Earth, the first U.S. manned space flight.

On Saturday, June 22 Chasing the Moon: A Film tells the early days of the space race. The Hammond showing is Part 1 of a three-episode documentary made possible by PBS and the American Experience which broadcasts nationally July 8-10, just days before July 20, the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing.

Part 1, “A Place Beyond the Sky,” focuses on the space race the United States and Soviet Union engaged in during the early years of the space program.

All movie showings start at 2 p.m.; refreshments will be served.

The Hammond Public Library is at 564 State St., at the intersection of Sibley and Sohl; call (219) 931-5100 for more info or visit www.hammond.lib.in.us/events

Story Posted:06/09/2019