40 years ago today, Apollo 11 was launched on its mission towards the moon. NASA will be celebrating the anniversary of the lunar landing on July 20th, but the web is already buzzing with commemorative articles and memoirs.

One of these is Life Magazine's gallery of "Weirdly Beautiful Spacecraft Models," including the an early model of the Lumar Excursion Module (top) and the flashy, full-scale mockup of the final design (bottom). For more glimpses into the spacecraft design process, browse the gallery here (and, by the way, if you are interested in this kind of thing, be sure to read our article about the NASA Industrial Design team).

Also worth mentioning: the New York Times has posted a rich series of articles about the lunar landing from different perspectives, including: an interactive feature from Times reporter John Noble Wilford, who covered the Apollo Mission back in 1969, about the "awe-inspiring days of the space race"; an article about the minority of Americans who believe the landings were faked; an examination of NASA's future lunar plans; and a gallery of photos taken by the astronauts over the duration of their mission. Get the full list of articles here.

More photos of spacecraft models after the jump.

Thanks, Ben!

Iterations of the Lunar Module

Surveryor Soft Landing Probe