The sad news of the passing of Astronaut Michael Collins has led me to write about Kennington’s own links with the space programme.
One of the more curious sights along Kennington Road is the tiny metal plaques to NASA astronauts.
They were placed there by The British Interplanetary Society (BIS). The BIS is the oldest space advocacy group in the world. Who aims to support and promote astronautics and space exploration in the UK and throughout the world. Their headquarters are based locally in Vauxhall, at 27 South Lambeth Road.
Use this wonderful map to see where each of the trees are, together with links to each of the astronauts,
There used to be a Kennington Road Underground Station(Opens in a new browser tab)
Missing Moon Trees?
When astronaut Stuart Roosa flew on NASA’s Apollo 14 mission he took with him 500 tree seeds. When these returned to Earth, NASA planted the seeds and grew saplings, before been given to various locations. Most of the moon trees are in the US but some were given to other nations including the UK. Unfortunately, no one kept a record of where they were distributed to. Do you have any information that can help locate them? More at CNN
Plane Trees- Find out more
Want to know more about the London Plane Trees – then read the Trees for Cities guide (Coincidently they are based at the Prince Consort Lodge in Kennington Park)
