Mahesh Anand celebrating the Moon landing anniversary on the USS Hornet

Mahesh Anand, Reader in Planetary Science and Exploration within the School of Physical Sciences, visited the USS Hornet on 24th July 2019 on the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 splashdown. USS Hornet is the ship that was used to recover the Apollo 11 capsule upon its splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on 24th July 1969, and is now moored off San Francisco bay on Alameda island where it has been converted into a museum. The photo shows a ‘broiler plate’ copy of the capsule that was used to practise Apollo 11 capsule recovery.

Prior to this visit, Mahesh gave a talk at the NASA Exploration Science Forum which was well received. To Mahesh’s delight, in the audience was the Apollo 17 astronaut, Dr Jack Schmitt, who collected many of the rocks on which we have been working on at the OU.