A fact from Maspalomas Station appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 16 July 2019 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:
Did you know... that 50 years ago today, Maspalomas Station in the Canary Islands was the first ground station to make contact with the Apollo 11 astronauts in Earth orbit, about 16 minutes into the flight?
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The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk pageorWikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.
... that the signals broadcast from the first Moon landing in 1969 first arrived at Maspalomas Station in the Canary Islands?
ALT1:... that the first place on Earth to receive Neil Armstrong's words from the Moon on 20 July 1969 was Maspalomas Station in the Canary Islands?
ALT2:... that Maspalomas Station in the Canary Islands was the first place on Earth to receive Neil Armstrong's words from the Apollo 11 Moon landing on 20 July 1969?
Comment: It would be lovely to time this for 20 July 2019, the 50th anniversary of the moon landing
Oh, no I didn't know. Last time I nominated, it took so long that I thought I might as well get in early. So I have to time this nomination precisely for the 1st week in June? Cnbrb (talk) 17:31, 11 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Then they'll tell you that it's not new enough. - I see three ways: you go to WP:DYKTALK, explain and ask for an exception, or you make it a GA in June, - they are also eligible, or you find something connected, write on that in June, and mention this in the hook. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 21:42, 11 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Danke für den Hinweis Gerda. So, for any admins/approvers reading this, it would be very nice if this DYK, if approved, could be held until July 2019. Cnbrb (talk) 12:44, 12 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]
5x expanded. I think ALT1 is better than the main hook, but I'd suggest reordering it so that the station name is at the start, and perhaps link to Apollo 11 somewhere. The article text looks good and reasonably well-referenced (particularly for the text in the hook), but I want to take a bit more time to read through it before checking this off. @Cnbrb: I think this is your 6th DYK, so you need to do a QPQ review? (Note: I'm just going to do the review, the timing question is up to thee posting admin.) Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 12:04, 22 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Hi - the commenter has removed the question now. The wording s/he brought into question was supported by sources, but if they want so provide sources that say otherwise and re-edit the article, obviously that's fine. So far this has not been forthcoming.Cnbrb (talk) 11:39, 13 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Alt 3 "... that about 16 minutes into the flight of Apollo 11, Maspalomas Station in the Canary Islands was the first ground station to make contact with the astronauts in Earth orbit?"
It was time to take the flight to the Moon and the Gran Canaria station continued to play a fundamental role: it was the first to detect the entry into orbit of spacecraft and to communicate with astronauts after insertion, thus providing a "unique coverage" for the command centers of Cape Canaveral in the initial phase of the missions, when the capsule was still close to Earth. "Maspalomas, the first station in the world that comes into contact with the spacecraft", was the headline of the newspaper La Vanguardia on July 17, 1969, the day that the most famous astronauts in history were heading towards the Moon.
At 16 minutes of the launch of Apollo 11, the voice of Neil Armstrong came loud and clear to Maspalomas. The station recorded everything the astronauts talked about, recorded their heart rate and kept in touch with the crew during their journey to the Moon, remaining closed to all contact with the outside world. In coordination with the Madrid station of Robledo de Chavela, it is estimated that some 200 Spaniards participated in this historic mission in one way or another.
@Coffeeandcrumbs and Cnbrb: Having "fifty years ago today" and "about 16 minutes into the flight" adjacent to each other doesn't look right. If you want to keep both, can one move to the other end of the hook? Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 11:44, 11 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]
This statement is now outdated and needs to be removed or updated:
"The facility has been commissioned to support China's forthcoming Chang'e 5 mission to retrieve samples of Moon rock (postponed to 2019)."