MINNEAPOLIS-ST. PAUL, MN -- In conjunction with the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, the Minnesota Twins announced today that they are one of 15 Major League Baseball clubs participating in the museum’s “Apollo at the Park” program. America’s national pastime meats history’s greatest adventure, as the Twins will display a full-sized statue of Neil Armstrong’s Apollo 11 spacesuit at Target Field this summer, beginning sometime in June. The Twins will also celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing with various ballpark festivities during the team’s July 20 home game against the Oakland Athletics.

Armstrong’s spacesuit was conserved and digitized thanks to funding from a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2015 and will go back on display for the first time in 13 years at the museum July 16. The statues at ballparks will be created using the Smithsonian’s 3-D scan of the spacesuit and made of a blend of rigid resin, for strength and durability for outdoor display, and hand painted.

Each suit statue will have an interactive component where fans can use their phone cameras to scan parts of the suit, including the Apollo 11 patch, NASA logo, American flag and glove patch, to access videos and additional information about the Apollo 11 mission, astronauts and the anniversary. Fans are also encouraged to share photos of themselves with the suit by using the hashtag #SnapTheSuit. Many of the photos will appear on the museum’s Apollo at the Park webpage: https://airandspace.si.edu/apollo-park.

“Apollo at the Park will celebrate the energy Americans felt when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon,” said Ellen Stofan, John and Adrienne Mars Director of the museum. “Baseball ballparks are the perfect venues for new generations to learn more about that summer night July 20, 1969, and they allow us to celebrate Apollo’s 50th across the country.”

The Twins actually won twice that historic day in 1969, wrapping up a July 19 suspended game against host Seattle with a victory, before defeating the Pilots in that day’s regularly-scheduled contest at Sick’s Stadium. The previous night’s game had been halted after 16 innings with the score tied 7-7; the Twins scored four times in the top of the 18th for an 11-7 victory. Minnesota’s Jim Perry pitched a complete-game shutout for a 4-0 victory in the regularly-scheduled game, giving the eventual American League West Champion Twins a four-game lead in the standings.

The Twins will announce further celebratory plans in the coming weeks. For more information about all the museum’s Apollo anniversary plans and Apollo historical content, visit https://airandspace.si.edu/apollo50.

Other teams participating in the “Apollo at the Park” program are the Atlanta Braves, Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Indians, Colorado Rockies, Detroit Tigers, Houston Astros, New York Yankees, Pittsburgh Pirates, San Francisco Giants, Seattle Mariners, Tampa Bay Rays and Washington Nationals.

Season, group and single-game tickets for the remainder of the 2019 season at Target Field are available via the MLB Ballpark App, at twinsbaseball.com, by calling 612-33-TWINS or 800-33-TWINS, or in-person at the Target Field Ticket Office.