City of Kent Achieves Historic Landmark Designation for Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicles

KENT, Wash., July 26, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The City of Kent and the Kent Downtown Partnership in King County, Washington received historic landmark designation yesterday for the Lunar Roving Vehicles that were built in Kent at the Boeing Space Center and used in Apollo Missions 15, 16 and 17 in 1971 and 1972. These vessels made it possible for six astronauts to safely explore the moon's landscape and remain untouched on the moon today. The designation was unanimously passed at a public hearing at the Kent City Hall on Thursday evening by the King County Landmarks Commission.

"Above all, the designation for the City of Kent acts as a reminder of the dedicated engineers who changed history through the creation of the Lunar Roving Vehicles 50 years ago," said Kent Mayor Dana Ralph. "The momentous recognition for Kent Valley allows for continued education and remembrance of the tangible impact these vehicles have had on space exploration indefinitely."

This groundbreaking designation decision coincides with the 50(th) anniversary of Boeing winning the NASA contract to create these Lunar Roving Vehicles. In just 17 months these "moon buggies" were created to allow humans to explore more of the moon's surface which paved the way for future innovation in space exploration and enabled the most successful crewed missions to the moon.

"Landmark designations play an essential role in preserving the history of lunar exploration," notes Michael Lombardi, historian at Boeing. "These legendary artifacts bear witness to this exploration of the moon and will now be solidified in history through today's designation, honoring the extraordinary work done by so many."

Now that the Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicles have achieved landmark designation for the region, the City of Kent will go on to pursue recognition at the state level. To date, only California and New Mexico have lunar objects in their state historic registers. The City of Kent's efforts to attain state historic landmark designation will bring even greater recognition of this region's continued contributions and to our country's legacy of lunar exploration.

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SOURCE City of Kent