IT WAS meant to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first landing on the moon, but the curators of a family-themed space exhibition in Basingstoke were left red-faced after getting the date of the historic moment wrong.

The Bricks in Space event was running in Festival Place from April 13 to 23 , encouraging children to follow a trail to find galactic models made from LEGO, to mark 50 years since Neil Armstrong first landed on the moon in 1969.

But embarrassingly, a sign referring to this momentous occasion said he landed on the moon eight years earlier in 1961.

The sign accompanied a model of Vostok 1, made using 1,978 Lego bricks.

It referred to Neil Armstrong being the first man to land on the moon in 1961 as part of the Vostok 1 mission.

However, Neil Armstrong did not land on the moon until July 1969 as part of Apollo 11 Lunar Module, not Vostok 1, which was the first manned spaceflight in history.

The exhibition asked ‘Who knows what wonders you’ll discover?’.

But shoppers taking part were unimpressed by their discoveries, pointing out another errors posted on the information signs accompanying the models.

Posting on Facebook, Christine Hylands said she was “amazed” by the detail of the sculptures, but pointed out that Buzz Aldrin – who, with Neil Armstrong was the first person to land on the moon - was erroneously referred to as Bull Aldrin.

Emily Palmer, marketing manager at Festival Place, said hundreds of people visited the Bricks in Space exhibition, adding: “Our partners, Hampshire-based Bright Bricks, spent eons building these incredible models, but the cosmic forces must have gone to their heads and some strange things happened to a couple of the signs. It seems that their spellcheck disappeared into a black hole!

“We hope it didn’t spoil people’s enjoyment of these stellar models.”