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The mission to get 100 women to walk on the Moon - without leaving Earth
TL;DR
For the first time, women have walked on the Moon without leaving Earth, with Betty Campbell celebrating her 90th birthday in a spacesuit and moon boots. The event took place in East Belfast.
Key points
- Women have never walked on the Moon in space.
- Betty Campbell celebrated her 90th birthday with a moonwalk.
- The event took place in East Belfast.
- Participants wore spacesuits and moon boots.
Women have never walked on the Moon - until now.
And they have done it without leaving earth, or east Belfast.
Betty Campbell even celebrated her 90th birthday by donning her spacesuit, moon boots and helmet and doing a moonwalk.
"I thought I was going to have a happy, quiet birthday but little did I know what a lovely thing was planned," Betty said.
"It was just so wonderful to be given the opportunity at my age."
The surprise moonwalk was all down to Betty's neighbour, artist Deby McKnight.
She transformed the living room of her small terraced home into a recreation of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's historic walk onto the Moon in 1969, complete with moon lander, mission plans and a small piece of the Moon itself.
It all started when a geologist friend told her she could buy a small piece of a lunar meteorite called Bechar 003, so she did.
Deby then set herself the target of enabling 100 women to walk on the Moon.
So far 44 women have taken the giant step.
"We know it's a piece of the Moon because [of] the pieces of the Moon that were brought back from the Apollo missions [and] it matches the composition of meteorites that are found on earth," Deby explained.
But owning a piece of the Moon gave Deby a much bigger idea.
A total of 12 astronauts walked on the Moon during Nasa's Apollo programme between 1969 and 1972, but they were all male.
"I was just looking at [the piece of the Moon] and going: 'Oh my goodness, women have never walked on the Moon, they've never walked on the Moon'," Deby said.
"And then it just suddenly occurred to me: 'But they will in my living room'."
Other astronauts have orbited the Moon - most recently the crew of Nasa's Artemis II mission, which splashed down safely in the Pacific Ocean earlier this month.
As Deby had not long moved into her house, she had used a stepladder to strip wallpaper but that and a few foil blankets became the basis of her lunar lander.
The piece of the Moon sits at the bottom of the ladder and the women step on it as they get off.
"I thought I could have a piece of the Moon, somehow, touching someone's foot, somehow connected with my stepladder, somehow in my living room," she said.
She also called on her niece Jane McKnight to help her to design and make spacesuits and boots.
Jane admitted that her aunt's idea came as a bit of a surprise.
"She sent a message and at first I couldn't make out what she was saying, I was very confused," Jane said.
"And once I understood that she meant for women to walk on the Moon in her living room, I went: 'This is incredible, how can I help?'"
Q&A
Who was the first woman to walk on the Moon?
Women have never walked on the Moon in space, but a symbolic event allowed them to do so on Earth.
What did Betty Campbell do for her 90th birthday?
Betty Campbell celebrated her 90th birthday by wearing a spacesuit and moon boots to participate in a moonwalk event.
Where did the moonwalk event for women take place?
The moonwalk event took place in East Belfast.
What was the significance of the moonwalk event for women?
The event symbolically marked the achievement of women walking on the Moon, highlighting gender representation in space exploration.
