A fantastic limited-edition carpet by Martin Mostboeck, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing; sadly I can’t seem to find it on the manufacturer’s website, so I couldn’t tell you what it costs or how to get one. Sure is neat, though! (Found via Curved White.)

40 years ago today, this happened. [points up] Which led to exciting times for the astronauts… [points down]

Well, the point was, not only did we land on the moon in 1969, the astronauts lived to tell about it, and in fact came back here:

…which really, is quite remarkable.

I’ve always liked Google’s logo designs for special events, and for the 40th on Monday, they had this up, which I find admirably subtle:

This picture was actually taken 40 years ago *yesterday*…. but who’s counting? Not me.

After the most famous voyage of modern times, it was time to go home. After proving that humanity has the ability to go beyond the confines of planet Earth, the first humans to walk on another world — Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin — flew the ascent stage of their Lunar Module back to meet Michael Collins in the moon-orbiting Command and Service Module. Pictured above on 1969 July 21, the ascending spaceship was captured by Collins making its approach, with the Moon below, and Earth far in the distance.

40 years ago today, astronauts Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins were on their way to the Moon.

AS11-36-5355 (17 July 1969) — Most of Africa and portions of Europe and Asia can be seen in this spectacular photograph taken from the Apollo 11 spacecraft during its trans-lunar coast toward the moon. Apollo 11, with astronauts Neil A. Armstrong, commander; Michael Collins, command module pilot; and Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., lunar module pilot, onboard was already 98,000 nautical miles from Earth when this picture was made. While astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin descended in the Lunar Module (LM) “Eagle” to explore the Sea of Tranquility region of the moon, astronaut Collins remained with the Command and Service Modules (CSM) “Columbia” in lunar orbit.

…a Saturn V launched toward the Moon. Over the next few days I will be sharing photos from Apollo 11, in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the first Moon landing.

And here’s the official logo!