Apollo 11 mission timeline: To the moon and back again

Speaking to Congress on May 25, 1961, Kennedy said, "I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important in the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish."

And just months before the decade would end, on July 16, 1969, the nation's greatest space mission began at Cape Canaveral, Florida, when Apollo 11 blasted off.

July 16, 1969

9:32 a.m. EDT: Blastoff

It's a three-stage Saturn V rocket filled with nearly a million gallons of kerosene, liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. Riding that rocket: Commander Neil Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin.

In minutes, Apollo 11 is in Earth orbit, preparing to break the surly bonds of the planet's gravity and start heading for the moon a few hours later.

12:16 p.m. EDT: Orbiting

It's now two hours and 44 minutes after liftoff.

Apollo 11 is in Earth orbit for one swing around the planet, almost 120 miles above the surface. They have fired and jettisoned two of the Saturn V rocket's three engines. But before firing their third stage, there is time for some sightseeing and some weatherwatching from space.

"Trees and a forest down there. It looks like trees and a forest or something. Looks like snow and trees. Fantastic," says Collins. "I have no conception of where we're pointed or which way we are ... but it's a beautiful low pressure cell out here."

But then comes the call from from Mission Control. It's time to fire that one remaining engine and make a beeline for the moon.

Their next maneuver — and it's a tricky — comes in about 40 minutes.

12:57 p.m. EDT: Maneuvering

It's coming up on three and a half hours after launch, time for the trickiest maneuver so far. To get the three parts of spacecraft into the proper position for orbiting and landing on the moon, the crew must eject the command service module from the tip of the stage-three rocket, pull a 180-degree turnabout, and dock head-first with the moon landing module — while traveling at 20,000 mph. 

It works. And Apollo 11 begins its three-day odyssey through the 238,000 miles of space between the Earth and the moon.

7:37 p.m. EDT: Housekeeping

It's now 10 hours into the flight of Apollo 11. The crew has spent part of the last serveral hours clearing up some communications problems, and on navigation, lining up the spacecraft with the stars the way the ancient mariners did — but from a bit closer to the stars.

"Hi, Houston, Apollo 11. How many miles out do you have us now?" says Aldrin.

"We have you — stand by, Buzz — roughly about 50,000 (nautical miles, 93,000 km). Stand by," says Charlie Duke at Mission Control.

And, before bedtime, some more sightseeing.  

"Hey, Charlie, I can see the snow on the — on the mountains out in California," Aldrin says. "And it looks like L.A. doesn't have much of a smog problem today."

Then Mission Control is ready to say goodnight, and the crew is ready for a bit to eat. 

Then they call it a night, drifting off to sleep while drifting through space at 28,000 mph.

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July 17, 1969

7 a.m. EDT: Wake-up call

Day Two for Apollo 11 begins with a wake-up call.

"Apollo 11, Apollo 11. This is Houston, over," says Bruce McCandless from Mission Control. 

"Good morning, Houston. Apollo 11," replies Buzz Aldrin.

It is a little after 7 a.m. our time.

Mission Control gives the crew about 22 minutes for some housekeeping, then McCandless gives them the world.

He reads: "Washington, UPI. Vice President Spiro T. Agnew has called for putting a man on Mars by the year 2000, but Democratic leaders replied that priority must go to needs on Earth. Agnew, ranking government official at the Apollo 11 blast-off Wednesday, apparently was speaking for himself and not necessarily the Nixon administration when he said, 'We should, in my judgement, put a man on Mars by the end of this century.'

"Laredo, Texas, AP: Immigration officials in Nuevo Laredo announced Wednesday that hippies will be refused tourist cards to enter Mexico unless they take a bath and get haircuts. Huberto Cazaras, Chief of Mexican immigration in Nuevo Laredo, said authorities in Mexico City, Acapulco, and other popular tourist spots have registered complaints about the hippies.

"Associated Press, London AP: Europe is Moon-struck by the Apollo 11 mission. Newspapers throughout the continent filled their pages with pictures of the Saturn V rocket blasting off to forge Earth's first link with its natural satellite. And headline writers taxed their imagination for words to hail the feat. To quote: 'The greatest adventure in the history of humanity has started,' declared the French newspaper Le Figaro, which devoted four pages to reports from Cape Kennedy and diagrams of the mission. The tabloid Paris Jour proclaimed, 'The whole world tells them bravo.' The Communist daily L'Humanite led with a launch picture and devoted its entire back page to an enthusiastic moon report describing the countdown and launch, the astronauts' wives and families, and backgrounding lunar activities. 

"Hampstead, New York: Joe Namath officially reported to the New York Jets' traning camp at Hofstra University Wednesday following a closed door meeting with his teammates over his differences with pro football Commissioner Peter Rozelle. 

"London UPI: The House of Lords was assured Wednesday that a midget American submarine would not "damage or assault" the Loch Ness Monster. Lord Nomay said he wanted to be sure anyone operating a submarine in the loch "would not subject any creatures that might inhabit it to damage or assault." He asked that the submarine's plan to take a tissue sample with a retrievable dart from any monster it finds can be done without damage and disturbance. He was told it was impossible to say if the 1876 Cruelty to Animals Act would be violated unless and until the monster was found. Over."

Then as the crew got busy working the flight plan, they looked ahead to the halfway point in the mission to the moon. 

9:33 a.m. EDT: Closer to the moon than to Earth

It's now 25 hours into Apollo 11's mission to the moon and, while there are no signposts in space, before this minute is up, the crew will have passed a major milestone. 

"At that time the spacecraft will be 104,350 (nautical) miles (193,256 km) from both the Earth and the moon," reports NASA.

The half-way point between Earth and the moon.

And just 10 minutes later, the crew is pranked by an astronaut who would have his own mission to the moon nine months later. 

Mission Control: Is the Commander aboard?
Neil Armstrong: This is the Commander.
Mission Control: I was a little worried. This is the backup commander still standing by. You haven't given me the word yet. Are you go?
Neil Armstrong: You've lost your chance to take this one, Jim.
Mission Control: Okay. I concede.

That's Jim Lovell, who would command Apollo 13, the mission to the moon that had to be aborted when there was an explosion in an on-board oxygen tank.

But on this day, he was teasing the crew of Apollo 11.

10:43 a.m. EDT: Staying on track

When you're driving a quarter of a million miles, sometimes you have to nudge the steering wheel just a little.

It's mid-morning on Day Two of the mission to the moon. The spacecraft is hurtling toward the moon at better than 3,400 mph and, as expected, they have to fire up the engine to make a course correction.

It won't take long — just three seconds. And the timing was right on the nose.

4:01 p.m. EDT: Ready for prime time

It's 30.5 hours into the flight of Apollo 11, and Buzz Aldrin answers the call from Mission Control. They are receiving a picture of an on-board computer screen showing wavy numbers, Apollo 11's answer to a terrestrial test pattern.

Neil Armstrong describes what was on screen:

"You're seeing Earth, as we see it, out our left-hand window, just a little more than a half-Earth. We're looking at the eastern Pacific Ocean, and the north half of the top half of the screen, we can see North America, Alaska, United States, Canada, Mexico and Central America. South America becomes invisible just off beyond the terminator or inside the shadow. We can see the oceans with a definite blue cast, see white bands of major cloud formations across the Earth, and can see coastlines, pick out the western U.S., San Joaquin Valley, the Sierra mountain range, the peninsula of Baja California, and can see some cloud formations over southeastern U.S.

And then, good night to Earth.

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July 18, 1969

5:08 p.m. EDT: Entering the lunar module

Day Three of the flight of Apollo 11, and Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong are preparing for a change of address, from the command module to the lunar module — the LM, they called it. On Earth we came to know it as the Eagle.

"Looks like we'll be ready to go into the LM early if that's okay with you all down there," says Armstrong.

"Roger," says Duke. "It's fine with us, Neil. Go ahead any time you wish."

There's time for another look out the window.

"It appears now that we have a view of Earth out the window," says Mission Control.

"If that's not the Earth, we're in trouble," jokes Duke.

"That's the Earth," says Armstrong. "And we have a very good view of it today. There are a few more cloud bands on than yesterday when we beamed down to you, but it's a beautiful sight."

The televised ridealong lasts about an hour and a half, but the crew has to go. They have a spaceship to fly and a rendezvous to meet.

"We're going to turn our TV monitor off now for a short bit while we have some other work to do," says Armstrong. "Apollo 11 signing off."

"Thank you very much," says Duke. "That was one of the greatest shows we've ever seen. We sure appreciate it."

"It was a pleasure," says Armstrong.

At the present time, Apollo 11 is 178,236 nautical miles from Earth, and the velocity has dropped down to 3,146 feet per second.

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July 19, 1969

10:14 a.m. EDT: Approaching lunar orbit

Day Four 4 of Apollo 11's flight to the moon starts with the daily news briefing.

Fred Haise in Mission Control starts off.

"First off, looks like it's going to be impossible to get away from the fact that you guys are dominating all the news back here on Earth. Even Pravda in Russia is headlining the mission and calls Neil, the czar of the ship. I think maybe they got the wrong mission."

Bruce McCandless continues: "West Germany has declared Monday to be Apollo Day. School children in Bavaria have been given the day off. Post Office clerks have been encouraged to bring radios to work, and Frankfurt is installing TV sets in public places."

"BBC in London is considering a special radio alarm system to call people to their TV sets in case there is a change in the EVA time on the Moon," reads Haise.

"And in Italy, Pope Paul VI has arranged for a special color TV circuit at his summer residence in order to watch you, even though Italian television is still black and white," says McCandless.

And then, some Philly sports.

"Okay. In golf world, Tommy Jacobs, an infrequent competitor in recent years, took the lead in the Philadelphia Golf Classic yesterday. His second round score was 139," reads Haise.

And then, the very serious business of getting the spacecraft into the orbit of the moon.

Apollo 11 is 966 miles from the moon, traveling at 6,511 feet per second. That's better than 4,400 miles an hour — Philly to Los Angeles in about 45 minutes.

Now the spacecraft is in lunar orbit and about to disappear to the dark side of the moon.

1:13 p.m EDT: The dark side of the moon

It's now a little over 75 and a half hours into the flight of Apollo 11 streaking across the dark side of moon at better than 5 thousand two hundred miles an, hour. 

"And we've had Loss Of Signal as Apollo 11 goes behind the Moon. We were showing a distance to the Moon of 309 nautical miles [572 km> at LOS. Velocity; 7,664 feet per second [2,336 m/s>. We're 7 minutes, 45 seconds away from the LOI number 1 burn, which will take place behind the moon, out of communications."

And when the burn ended, and Apollo 11 emerged from the dark side, they saw their first Earthrise. 

And below them, growing ever closer, the craters on the surface of the moon, where two astronauts would soon descend into the history books.

"Apollo 11 is getting its first view of the landing approach," reports Armstrong. "This time we are going over the Taruntius crater, and the pictures and maps brought back by Apollos 8 and 10 have given us a very good preview of what to look at here. It looks very much like the pictures, but like the difference between watching a real football game and one on TV. There's no substitute for actually being here."

"Roger. We concur, and we certainly wish we could see it first hand, also," says McCandless.

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July 20, 1969

4:17 p.m. EDT: "The Eagle has landed."

Day Five of the mission to the moon, and the Eagle is soaring toward a landing. But is everything ready? 

The crew gets the go/no go from Mission Control. And with that clearance, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin fly the eagle to the Sea of Tranquility.

"We copy you down, Eagle," said Charlie Duke.

"Engine arm is off," Armstrong said. "Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed."

There were men on the moon.  

10:56 p.m. EDT: "One small step"

It's coming up on 11 p.m. on Day Five of the mission to the moon. Apollo 11 has been on the surface at the Sea of Tranquility for about six and a half hours later. And now, it's time to go out for a stroll.  

July 21, 1969

1:50 p.m. EDT: Time to leave

Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin have spent 21 hours on the moon, about two and a half hours on the surface, planting a flag and collecting rocks. Now it is time to  leave. 

Next, they will have to catch a moving target: the Command Module Columbia, where Mike Collins has been orbiting alone. They will dock and reuinite, leave the Eagle behind and burn for home.

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July 22, 1969

7:03 p.m. EDT: Homeward bound

On the way, a TV show and tell. Neil Armstrong has the samples collected from the surface.

"We know there's a lot of scientists from a number of countries standing by to see the lunar samples, and we thought you'd be interested to see them as they really are here," Armstrong begins. "These two boxes are the sample return containers. They are vacuum-packed containers that were closed in a vacuum on the lunar surface, sealed and then brought inside the LM and put inside these fiberglass bags, zippered and re-sealed around the outside and placed in these receptacles in the side of the Command Module.

"These are the two boxes, and as soon as we get onto the ship, I'm sure these boxes will immediately be transferred and delivery started to the Lunar Receiving Laboratory. These boxes include the samples of the various types of rock, the ground mass of the soil, the sand and silt and the particle collector for the solar wind experiment and the core tubes that took depth samples of the lunar surface."

"These bite-sized objects were designed to remove the problem of having so many crumbs floating around in the cabin," he says, "so they designed a particular size that would be able to go into the mouth all at once.

"I think since all of our experience, we've discovered that we can progress a good bit further than that, back to some of the type meals that we have on Earth. As a matter of fact, on this flight we've carried along pieces of bread, and along with the bread we have a ham spread. And I'll show you, I hope, how easy it is to spread some ham [in the> environment of zero g."

It's a day and a half until splashdown back on Earth.

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July 23, 1969

11:23 p.m. EDT: One last look

It is Day Eight of the flight of Apollo 11, the last full day in space, and a thought from the first man to walk on the moon.

Neil Armstrong, aboard the command module Columbia:

"A hundred years ago, Jules Verne wrote a book about a voyage to the moon. His spaceship, Columbia, took off from Florida and landed in the Pacific Ocean after completing a trip to the Moon. It seems appropriate to us to share with you some of the reflections of the crew as the modern-day Columbia completes its rendezvous with the planet Earth and the same Pacific Ocean tomorrow."

Mike Collins goes first:

"This trip of ours to the moon may have looked, to you, simple or easy. I'd like to assure you that has not been the case. The Saturn V rocket, which put us into orbit, is an incredibly complicated piece of machinery, every piece of which worked flawlessly. This computer up above my head has a 38,000-word vocabulary, each word of which has been very carefully chosen to be of the utmost value to us, the crew. This switch which I have in my hand now, has over 300 counterparts in the Command Module alone. ... 

"The SPS engine, our large rocket engine on the aft end of our Service Module, must have performed flawlessly, or we would have been stranded in lunar orbit. The parachutes up above my head must work perfectly tomorrow or we will plummet into the ocean. We have always had confidence that all this equipment will work, and work properly, and we continue to have confidence that it will do so for the remainder of the flight. 

"All this is possible only through the blood, sweat and tears of a number of people. First, the American workmen who put these pieces of machinery together in the factory. Second, the painstaking work done by the various test teams during the assembly and the re-test after assembly. And finally, the people at the Manned Spacecraft Center, both in management, in mission planning, in flight control, and last but not least, in crew training. This operation is somewhat like the periscope of a submarine. All you see is the three of us, but beneath the surface are thousands and thousands of others, and to all those, I would like to say, thank you very much."

Next up is Aldrin:

"We've come to the conclusion that this has been far more than three men on a voyage to the moon. More, still, than the efforts of a government and industry team. More, even, than the efforts of one nation. We feel that this stands as a symbol of the insatiable curiosity of all mankind to explore the unknown. Neil's statement the other day upon first setting foot on the surface of the Moon, 'This is a small step for a man, but a great leap for mankind,' I believe sums up these feelings very nicely. 

"We accepted the challenge of going to the Moon; the acceptance of this challenge was inevitable. The relative ease with which we carried out our mission, I believe, is a tribute to the timeliness of that acceptance. Today, I feel we're fully capable of accepting expanded roles in the exploration of space. ...

"Personally, in reflecting on the events of the past several days, a verse from Psalms comes to mind to me. 'When I consider the heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars which Thou hast ordained, what is man that Thou art mindful of him.'"

And then finally, Armstrong:

"The responsibility for this flight lies first with history and with the giants of science who have preceded this effort. Next with the American people, who have through their will, indicated their desire. Next, to four administrations, and their Congresses, for implementing that will. And then, to the agency and industry teams that built our spacecraft, the Saturn, the Columbia, the Eagle, and the little EMU; the space suit and backpack that was our small spacecraft out on the lunar surface. 

"We'd like to give a special thanks to all those Americans who built those spacecraft, who did the construction, design, the tests, and put their hearts and all their abilities into those craft. To those people, tonight, we give a special thank you, and to all the other people that are listening and watching tonight, God bless you. Good night from Apollo 11."

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July 24, 1969

12:51 p.m. EDT: Splashdown Day

It's splashdown day. And planet Earth is getting very big in the window of the Command Module Columbia as it screams back toward home at 36,237 feet per second. That's 24,707 miles an hour, with Earth's atmosphere waiting to put on the brakes.

The drouge parachutes deploy to slow their approach. Then the main parachutes deploy at about 10,000 feet.

The approach is perfect. The spacecraft is right on target.

And at 12:51 p.m., the Apollo 11 crew splashes down 825 miles southwest of Honolulu, and about 15 miles from the USS Hornet. 

The crew put on isolation suits to protect the world from possible moon cooties. Then they are hoisted aboard a helicopter and placed in an isolation pod on the Hornet, where they get a visit from President Richard Nixon. 

"This is the greatest week in the history of the world since the Creation. Because, as a result of what happened in this week, the world is bigger infinitely," Nixon said. "And also, ... as a result of what you've done, the world's never been closer together before. And we just thank you for that. And I only hope that all of us in government, all of us in America, that as a result of what you've done, we can do our job a little better. We can reach for the stars, just as you have reached so far for the stars."

With congratulations for the realization of a dream of the ages, and a promise less than a decade old, Apollo 11 is home.

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