Outside the Exploration Museum stands a monument commemorating the Apollo astronauts who trained in northern Iceland in 1965 and 1967. It's a modest piece of public art — not a grand statue but a thoughtful marker — and it tends to stop people in their tracks once they understand what it's commemorating. The idea that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were trudging across Icelandic lava fields to prepare for the Moon is the kind of fact that takes a moment to settle.
The monument is right on the main street near the harbour, easy to walk past without noticing until someone points it out. That modesty seems fitting. Húsavík didn't make a great fuss about the astronaut visits at the time — they were just scientists doing fieldwork in the Mývatn area — and the understated monument reflects the town's character. It's worth pausing here before or after visiting the Exploration Museum next door, where the full story is told in more detail.