In Alameda, California, a group of volunteers have saved and maintained a long-retired aircraft carrier that is just loaded with history. The USS Hornet was built and served in World War Two. But it is perhaps best known as the ship that recovered Apollo 11 — the first manned flight to the moon in 1969. In July of ’69 after a successful mission, the Hornet was dispatched to the PRS (Primary Recovery Spot) in the Pacific Ocean about 900 miles southwest of Hawaii. On July 24th, with President Richard Nixon on board, the Hornet plucked the Apollo astronauts and the capsule out of the sea — and into history.

Now docked in Alameda, at the USS Hornet Air and Space Museum, you can see where it all happened — where after splashdown the astronauts were brought aboard the ship — then put into isolation. Footprints painted on the deck mark exactly where the Apollo crew walked from the recovery helicopter over to the MQR (Mobile Quarantine Facility). As docent Paul Bodenhaner puts it — you are “walking in the footprints of history.”