Apollo 11 mission astronauts honored with sculpture made of butter

Last week, the historic Apollo 11 moon mission was commemorated worldwide. From take-off to “the eagle has landed”, we had a major piece of history. The American state of Ohio did this perhaps in the most unique way: there they made a sculpture of butter from the three astronauts.

Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins, were probably never aware of it: the three astronauts who were part of the Apollo 11 lunar mission are shown life-size in their spacesuit, as in the well-known photo that they signed hundreds of thousands of times, signed in to a buttered version.

Butter?

Although the link with butter seems very far-fetched, with some background knowledge, the butter sculptures seem a little less strange. After all, Neil Armstrong was born in Wapakoneta, a city in Ohio. Well, that explains the link to the American state.

But why the butter? Neil Armstrong looked into anonymity after the moon landing. He bought his own dairy farm in Ohio and lived there for decades. “Ohio has a special connection to that first moon landing since it was “one of us” who first set foot on the moon,” says Jenny Hubble, vice president of the American Dairy Association.

To confirm that, Neil Armstrong is depicted a second time with the American flag, but with butter.

Special composition

Besides the three astronauts, there are also some special butter sculptures in the exhibition. There are two more cows on the surface of the moon by the three astronauts, as a (subtle) reference to the dairy industry.

A total of no less than 1,000 kilograms of butter had been used to produce the special composition on the moon.