The Flight of Apollo 11
Apollo 11 Mission Patch
Launched: July 16, 1969
Landed: July 20, 1969, Sea of Tranquility
Splashed Down: July 24, 1969
Crew:
Neil A. Armstrong
Michael Collins
Edwin E. "Buzz" Aldrin, Jr.
Backup Crew:
James Lovell (3), Backup Commander
Fred Haise (0), Backup Lunar Module Pilot
William A. Anders (1), Backup Command Module Pilot
Milestones:
| 10/21/68 | LM-5 Integration Systems Test complete |
| 12/06/68 | CSM-107 Integrated Systems Test complete |
| 12/13/68 | LM-5 acceptance test complete |
| 01/08/69 | LM-5 Ascent Stage delivered to KSC |
| 01/12/69 | LM-5 Descent stage delivered to KSC |
| 01/18/69 | S-IVB ondock at KSC |
| 01/23/69 | CSM ondock at KSC |
| 01/29/69 | Command and Service Module Mated |
| 02/06/69 | S-II Stage ondock at KSC |
| 02/20/69 | S-1C Stage ondock at KSC |
| 02/17/69 | Combined CSM-107 system tests complete |
| 02/27/69 | S-IU ondock at KSC |
| 03/24/69 | CSM-107 Altitude testing complete |
| 04/14/69 | Rollover of CSM from O&C to VAB |
| 04/22/69 | Integrated system test complete |
| 05/05/69 | CSM electrical mate to Saturn V |
| 05/20/69 | Rollout to Pad LC-39A |
| 06/01/69 | Flight Readiness Test |
| 06/26/69 | Countdown Demonstration Test |
| 07/16/69 | Launch |
Payload:
CSM-107 (Columbia) and LM-5 (Eagle)
Mission Objective:
Perform manned lunar landing and return mission safely. (Achieved).
Launch:
July 16, 1969; 09:32:00 am EDT. Launch Complex 39-A Kennedy Space Center, FL. No launch delays.
Six days before, the Apollo 11 launch vehicle and spacecraft half crawled from the VAB and trundled at 0.9 mph to Pad 39-A. A successful countdown test ending on July 3 showed the readiness of machines, systems, and people. The next launch window (established by lighting conditions at the landing site on Mare Tranquillitatis) opened at 9:32 AM EDT on July 16, 1969. The crew for Apollo 11, all of whom had already flown in space during Gemini, had been intensively training as a team for many months.
Orbit:
Altitude: 186km x 183km
Earth Orbits:
Lunar Orbits:
Duration: 08 Days, 03 hours, 18 min, 35 seconds
Distance: miles
Lunar Location: Sea of Tranquility
Lunar Coords: .71 degrees North, 23.63 degrees East
Landing:
July 24, 1969; 12:50 p.m. EDT. Splashdown area 13deg 19min North and 169deg 9 min West; Splashdown at 195:18:35 MET. Crew on board U.S.S Hornet at 01:53 p.m. EDT; spacecraft aboard ship at 03:50pm.
Mission Highlights:
Apogee, 186km; perigee 183km; Translunar injection 02:44:26 MET; maximum distance from Earth 389,645km; lunar orbit insertion, 75:50:00 MET; lunar landing, 102:45:39 MET (20 July at 04:17 p.m. EDT).
First step on moon, 10:56:15 p.m. EDT; end of EVA, 111:39:13 MET (01:09 a.m. EDT); liftoff from moon, 124:22:00.8 MET (1:54 p.m. EDT); LM-CSM docking, 128:03:00 MET; transearth injection, 135:23:52.3 MET.
First lunar landing mission and lunar surface EVA. July 20, Sea of Tranquility.
1 EVA of 02 hours, 31 minutes. Flag and instruments deployed; unveiled plaque on the LM descent stage with inscription: "Here Men From Planet Earth First Set Foot Upon the Moon. July 1969 A.D. We Came In Peace For All Mankind."
Lunar surface stay time 21.6 hours;59.5 hours in lunar orbit, with 30 orbits. LM ascent stage left in lunar orbit. 20kg (44 lbs) of material gathered.
Landing Transcript:
After eight years of all-out effort, more than $20 billion expended, and three astronauts' deaths in the Apollo 1 capsule fire, on July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 landed on the Moon. The two astronauts who set foot on the surface, Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin E. "Buzz" Aldrin, called it in what later astronauts thought of as an understatement, "magnificent desolation." Here is the radio transmissions of the landing and Armstrong's first venture out onto the Lunar surface. The "CC" in the transcript is Houston Mission Control, CDR is Neil Armstrong, and LMP is Buzz Aldrin.
| 04 06 45 52 | CC | We copy you down, Eagle [the name of the Lunar Module]. |
| 04 06 45 57 | CDR | Houston, Tranquility Base here. |
| 04 06 45 59 | CDR | THE EAGLE HAS LANDED. |
| 04 06 46 04 | CC | Roger, Tranquility. We copy you on the ground. You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. We're breathing again. Thanks a lot. |
| 04 06 46 16 | CDR | Thank you. |
| 04 06 46 18 | CC | You're looking good here. |
| 04 06 46 23 | CDR | Okay. We're going to be busy for a minute. . . . |
| 04 06 46 38 | LMP | Very smooth touchdown. . . . |
| 04 06 47 03 | LMP | Okay. It looks like we're venting the oxidizer now. . . . |
| 04 06 47 09 | CC | Eagle you are STAY for T1 [one day on Moon]. |
| 04 06 47 12 | CDR | Roger. Understand, STAY for T1. . . . |
| 04 13 23 38 | CDR | [After suiting up and exiting the Lunar Module (LM), Armstrong was ready to descend to the Moon's surface]. I'm at the foot of the ladder. The LM footpads are only depressed in the surface about 1 or 2 inches, although the surface appears to be very, very fine grained, as you get close to it. It's almost like a power. Down there, it's very fine. |
| 04 13 23 43 | CDR | I'm going to step off the LM now. |
| 04 13 24 48 | CDR | THAT'S ONE SMALL STEP FOR MAN, ONE GIANT LEAP FOR MANKIND. |
| 04 13 24 48 | CDR | And the--the surface is fine and powdery. I can--I can pick it up loosely with my toe. It does adhere in fine layers like powdered charcoal to the sole and sides of my boots. I only go in a small fraction of an inch, maybe an eighth of an inch, but I can see the footprints of my boots and the treads in the fine, sandy particles. |
| 04 13 25 30 | CC | Neil, this is Houston. We're copying. |
| 04 13 25 45 | CDR | There seems to be no difficulty in moving around as we suspected. It's even perhaps easier than the simulations at one-sixth g that we performed in the various simulations on the ground. It's actually no trouble to walk around. Okay. The descent engine did not leave a crater of any size. It has about 1 foot clearance on the ground. We're essentially on a very level place here. I can see some evidence of rays emanating from the descent engine, but a very insignificant amount ... |
Summary:
On July 20, 1969, the human race accomplished its single greatest technological achievement of all time when a man first set foot on another celestial body.
Six hours after landing at 4:17 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (with less than 30 seconds of fuel remaining), Neil A. Armstrong took the "Small Step" into our greater future when he stepped off the Lunar Module, named "Eagle," onto the surface of the moon, from which he could look up and see the earth in the heavens as no one had done before him.
He was shortly joined by "Buzz" Aldrin, and the two astronauts spent 21 hours on the lunar surface and returned 46 pounds of lunar rocks. Their liftoff from the surface of the moon was (partially) captured on a TV camera they left behind, and they successfully docked with Michael Collins, patiently orbiting the cold but no longer lifeless moon alone in the Command Module "Columbia."
For Further Reading:
Benson, Charles D. and Faherty, William Barnaby. Moonport: A History of Apollo Launch Facilities and Operations. Washington, DC: NASA SP-4204, 1978.
Bilstein, Roger E. Stages to Saturn: A Technological History of the Apollo/Saturn Launch Vehicles. Washington, DC: NASA SP-4206, 1980.
Murray, Charles Murray and Cox, Catherine Bly. Apollo: The Race to the Moon. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1989.
Brooks, Courtney G., Grimwood, James M., and Swenson, Loyd S., Jr. Chariots for Apollo: A History of Manned Lunar Spacecraft. Washington, DC: NASA SP-4205, 1979).
Chaiken, Andrew. A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts. New York: Viking, 1994.
Compton, W. David. Where No Man Has Gone Before: A History of Apollo Lunar Exploration Missions. Washington, DC: NASA SP-4214, 1989).
Launius, Roger D., and Hunley, J.D. Compilers. An Annotated Bibliography of the Apollo Program. Washington, DC: Monographs in Aerospace History, No. 2, 1994.
Launius, Roger D. Apollo: A Retrospective Analysis. Washington, DC: Monographs in Aerospace History, No. 3, 1994.
Arnold S. Managing NASA in the Apollo Era. Washington, DC: NASA SP-4102, 1982.
Logsdon, John M. The Decision to Go to the Moon: Project Apollo and the National Interest. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1970.
Logsdon, John M. General Editor. Exploring the Unknown: Selected Documents in the History of the U.S. Civil Space Program. Washington, DC: NASA SP-4407, 1995, 3 vols.
Shepard, Alan, and Slayton, Deke. Moonshot: The Inside Story of America's Race to the Moon. New York: Turner Books, 1994.