Long before Neil Armstrong's famous words 'Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed!' NASA began preparations for landing on the moon in 1960. With a total of 17 Apollo missions, NASA succeeded in landing on the moon on 20 July 1969 with the 11th Apollo mission. The basis for this global event was the construction of the Apollo lunar module (LM for Lunar Module, originally LEM for Lunar Excursion Module).

In 2020, the Carl Zeiss Vision Center approached us to recreate and assemble this lunar module on a scale of 1:2 for their new production facility and exhibition centre in Kentucky, USA. Her name: 'Eagle'.

Based on a simple PDF drawing, one of our project teams started with the quotation and planning. We were delighted when Zeiss gave us the go-ahead for construction. The realisation phase then began in February 2021. The main part of building the Lunar Module was the complex construction. This was created in close collaboration with a local metalworker, who was commissioned by us to produce the lunar lander.

As a basis, we downloaded a 3D model from NASA and, working in parallel, painstakingly assembled a 1:48 scale model to get a feel for the proportions and design. As the process progressed, we contacted the Zeiss architect Elmar Gauggel from the Stuttgart-based Weltenbau laboratory with our approval drawings and sample surfaces (2 mm thick, powder-coated sheet steel and simple rescue blankets) and received positive feedback. We were finally able to start building the 'Eagle' lunar module.

'The Eagle has landed again!'

Before the lunar lander left our headquarters in Waldkirch, we assembled the complete model once for an on-site acceptance test. We then packed all the parts carefully and well protected for their long journey to Kentucky in transport crates and shipped them from Zeiss to the USA. On site in Hebron, Kentucky, our fitters successfully assembled the module.