Artists at the Mint produced three designs for the reverse, and in June 2017, both CFA and CCAC agreed on one of them. That design was by U.S. Mint Sculptor-Engraver Phebe Hemphill, who also engraved her side of the coin. The two winning designs were unveiled on October 11, 2018 at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC in the presence of dignitaries such as Mint Director David J. Ryder and Apollo 7 astronaut Walt Cunningham. At the unveiling, Ryder stated the five-ounce silver dollars, once placed on sale, could sell out in ten minutes. The shared obverse for the coins, created by Cooper, adapts the well-known photograph of an astronaut's bootprint, taken by Aldrin with a Hasselblad film camera, symbolizing the first step on the Moon. Cooper stated, "I recall seeing those first footprints, and it made so many people feel like that was their own footprint. I’ve never seen anything like that since." He noted that the original photograph had darkness in the recesses of the bootprint, forcing him to be creative. Along the rim are the words , and , separated by phases of the Moon, becoming more full as the programs advance towards the Moon landing. is at the bottom, with above and to each side, the date 2019 (to left) and to the right. The initials of Cooper and Menna, and the mint mark of the facility where the coin was struck also appear on the obverse. Congress required that the reverse be a "close-up of the famous 'Buzz Aldrin on the Moon' photograph taken July 20, 1969, that shows just the visor and part of the helmet of astronaut Buzz Aldrin, in which the visor has a mirrored finish and reflects the image of the United States flag and the lunar lander and the remainder of the helmet has a frosted finish." Although it is not usual for a living person to appear on a U.S. coin, Congress mandated it be done in this case, making Aldrin the seventh person depicted on a U.S. coin to be alive at the time it was struck by the Mint—the sixth, Nancy Reagan in 2016, was still alive at the time her entry in the First Spouse gold coin series was minted, but died before the official release. The convex shape of the reverse is meant to evoke the curvature of the visor on an astronaut's helmet.