The mission to get 100 women to walk on the Moon - without leaving Earth

Women have never walked on the Moon - until now.

And they have done it without leaving earth, or east Belfast.

Betty Campbell even celebrated her 90th birthday by donning her spacesuit, moon boots and helmet and doing a moonwalk.

"I thought I was going to have a happy, quiet birthday but little did I know what a lovely thing was planned," Betty said.

"It was just so wonderful to be given the opportunity at my age."

The surprise moonwalk was all down to Betty's neighbour, artist Deby McKnight.

She transformed the living room of her small terraced home into a recreation of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's historic walk onto the Moon in 1969, complete with moon lander, mission plans and a small piece of the Moon itself.

It all started when a geologist friend told her she could buy a small piece of a lunar meteorite called Bechar 003, so she did.

Deby then set herself the target of enabling 100 women to walk on the Moon.

So far 44 women have taken the giant step.

"We know it's a piece of the Moon because [of] the pieces of the Moon that were brought back from the Apollo missions [and] it matches the composition of meteorites that are found on earth," Deby explained.

But owning a piece of the Moon gave Deby a much bigger idea.

A total of 12 astronauts walked on the Moon during Nasa's Apollo programme between 1969 and 1972, but they were all male.

"I was just looking at [the piece of the Moon] and going: 'Oh my goodness, women have never walked on the Moon, they've never walked on the Moon'," Deby said.

"And then it just suddenly occurred to me: 'But they will in my living room'."

As Deby had not long moved into her house, she had used a stepladder to strip wallpaper but that and a few foil blankets became the basis of her lunar lander.

The piece of the Moon sits at the bottom of the ladder and the women step on it as they get off.

"I thought I could have a piece of the Moon, somehow, touching someone's foot, somehow connected with my stepladder, somehow in my living room," she said.

She also called on her niece Jane McKnight to help her to design and make spacesuits and boots.

Jane admitted that her aunt's idea came as a bit of a surprise.

"She sent a message and at first I couldn't make out what she was saying, I was very confused," Jane said.

"And once I understood that she meant for women to walk on the Moon in her living room, I went: 'This is incredible, how can I help?'"

Jane is set to do a special moonwalk herself.

"I am going to be the one hundredth woman to walk on the Moon in my auntie's living room," she said.

"I just knew if anyone was going to pull this off it was going to be my auntie.

"I didn't doubt it for a second that this was going to be happening."

'Something that was quite wild and bold'

Dawn Watson is one of those who has gone where no woman had gone before.

She said she was delighted that Deby had done something "so bold".

"It just felt like something that was quite wild and bold and something that, yeah, you don't hear of very often," she said.

"It's felt very moving to take part in.

"Climbing up the ladder and climbing back down in a room full of women, doing something that hasn't been done before.

"It may well be in a living room in east Belfast but it's felt much bigger and it's been an honour to be part of it.

"There's something about the fact that we're all just in the moment together.

"There's been something very special about it."

That is also how Betty felt about her neighbour's idea.

"Deby has just moved in here and I didn't realise what I was in for," she laughed.

"This is what we need at the moment.

"It's so wonderful to have someone come along and take us out of ourselves.

"In the present moment we're a bit down with world things, the way they're going on at the moment but this is what we need to lift us out of ourselves.

The moonwalk is also a tribute to the power of imagination.

But Betty thinks that Deby had divine inspiration too.

"They say 'where there's no vision people perish' - that's in the Bible," Betty said.

"I think I'm the eldest one to do it all and I almost feel 21 again."

And for others who want to follow in Betty, Deby, Jane and Dawn's footsteps Deby has set up a website for the project.