Hawaii lunar sample displays Hawaii lunar sample displays The Hawaii lunar sample displays are two commemorative plaques consisting of small fragments of moon specimen brought back with the Apollo 11 and Apollo 17 lunar missions and given in the 1970s to the people of the state of Hawaii by United States President Richard Nixon as goodwill gifts. The Hawaii Apollo 11 lunar sample display commemorative podium style plaque consists of four "moon rock" rice-size particle specimens that were collected by Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in 1969 and a small Hawaii state flag that was taken to the moon and back
Jim Lovell spacecraft, paved the way for the Apollo missions, and helped reach the goal of getting man on the Moon by the end of the decade. Lovell was originally chosen as Command Module pilot (CMP) on the backup crew for Apollo 9 along with Neil Armstrong as commander and Buzz Aldrin as lunar module pilot (LMP). Apollo 9 was planned as a high-apogee Earth orbital test of the Lunar Module (LM). Lovell later replaced Michael Collins as CMP on the Apollo 9 prime crew when Collins needed to have surgery for a bone spur on his spine. This reunited Lovell with