The world cheered when the first Apollo crew set foot upon the Moon, fulfilling one of the most audacious dreams in the history of human exploration. From 1969 to 1972, twelve Apollo astronauts gathered more than 2,000 rock samples and returned them to Earth. Few knew, at the time, that what the astronauts found would touch off a chain reaction in science.

Using state-of-the-art, upgraded archive footage, “Apollo’s New Moon” commemorates the 50th anniversary of the historic Apollo 11 lunar landing by exploring one of the Apollo Program’s greatest legacies. The dusty relics brought back by the moon-walking astronauts went straight into labs and out of the public mind. Over the years, these lunar samples opened a window in time, delivering a new understanding of how the planets formed… how the Moon was born… and how Earth and life emerged.

These findings, along with the recent discovery of water on the Moon, are now beginning to reboot Apollo’s loftiest vision: to open the solar system to human exploration. Scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs are making plans to return to the lunar surface, and from there, to launch a whole new generation of adventurers.