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"The Eagle has landed..."
Mission Control Celebrates Success of Apollo 11
Flight controllers celebrate the successful conclusion of the Apollo 11 lunar
landing mission on July 24, 1969, at NASA's Mission Control Center in Houston.
On July 20, Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong planted the first human foot on
another world. With more than half a billion people watching on television, he
climbed down the ladder and proclaimed: "That's one small step for a man, one
giant leap for mankind."
Image Credit: NASA
Non-NASA Links About Apollo:
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The Apollo Mode Decision: A good private site at Clemson University on the debate over the method of flying to the Moon with Project Apollo.
"To the Moon" The companion Web site to the two-hour NOVA special that chronicles the untold science and engineering story of how we got to the moon. The program was broadcast on PBS at 8 pm on July 13,1999.
"Washington Goes to the Moon": A two-part radio program that deals with the political story of the acquiring and sustaining of support of the Apollo lunar landing program in the 1960s. Produced by WAMU-FM, the public radio station of the American University in Washington, D.C., the show's web site also has transcripts of the two programs, on-line documents, and transcripts of interviews with key personnel.
Apollo at American Samoa: Some interesting information about the Apollo missions that landed near and then passed through American Samoa.
Apollo Saturn Reference Page: Detailed technical information about the Saturn Launch Vehicles for modelers and space buffs, by a private enthusiast.
Contact Light: A personal recollection of the Apollo missions to the Moon. This site by a private enthusiast includes some cool video and audio clips, a lunar landing simulator game, and reference tables.
Where Were You? This web site is dedicated to collecting memories from the various points of view of people who where alive during the historic landing of Apollo 11.
"One Giant Leap" commemorates the anniversary of Apollo 11 with a visual journey and interesting facts and data.
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Man In Space: Study of Alternatives: This is a National Park Service study to identify possible locations and other components of the national park system that pertain to Apollo.
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nixontapes.org: A page of original audio of a handful of meetings and phone calls that President Nixon had with the crews of Apollo 15, 16, and 17. One can find the digitized versions of the original audio, as well as summaries of the conversations here.
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On-line Books Concerning Project Apollo:
Steve Garber, NASA History Web Curator
Site design by NASA HQ Printing & Design
For further information email
histinfo@hq.nasa.gov
APOLLO 11
Mission ObjectiveThe primary objective of Apollo 11 was to complete a
national goal set by President John F. Kennedy on May 25, 1961: perform a crewed
lunar landing and return to Earth.
Additional flight objectives included
scientific exploration by the lunar module, or LM, crew; deployment of a
television camera to transmit signals to Earth; and deployment of a solar wind
composition experiment, seismic experiment package and a Laser Ranging
Retroreflector. During the exploration, the two astronauts were to gather
samples of lunar-surface materials for return to Earth. They also were to
extensively photograph the lunar terrain, the deployed scientific equipment, the
LM spacecraft, and each other, both with still and motion picture cameras. This
was to be the last Apollo mission to fly a "free-return" trajectory, which would
enable, if necessary, a ready abort of the mission when the combined command and
service module/lunar module, or CSM/LM, prepared for insertion into lunar orbit.
The trajectory would occur by firing the service propulsion subsystem, or SPS,
engine so as to merely circle behind the moon and emerge in a trans-Earth return
trajectory.
Mission Highlights
Apollo 11 launched from Cape Kennedy on July
16, 1969, carrying Commander Neil Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael
Collins and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin into an initial Earth-orbit
of 114 by 116 miles. An estimated 530 million people watched Armstrong's
televised image and heard his voice describe the event as he took "...one small
step for a man, one giant leap for mankind" on July 20, 1969.
Two hours,
44 minutes and one-and-a-half revolutions after launch, the S-IVB stage
reignited for a second burn of five minutes, 48 seconds, placing Apollo 11 into
a translunar orbit. The command and service module, or CSM, Columbia separated
from the stage, which included the spacecraft-lunar module adapter, or SLA,
containing the lunar module, or LM, Eagle. After transposition and jettisoning
of the SLA panels on the S-IVB stage, the CSM docked with the LM. The S-IVB
stage separated and injected into heliocentric orbit four hours, 40 minutes into
the flight.
The first color TV transmission to Earth from Apollo 11
occurred during the translunar coast of the CSM/LM. Later, on July 17, a
three-second burn of the SPS was made to perform the second of four scheduled
midcourse corrections programmed for the flight. The launch had been so
successful that the other three were not needed.
On July 18, Armstrong
and Aldrin put on their spacesuits and climbed through the docking tunnel from
Columbia to Eagle to check out the LM, and to make the second TV
transmission.
On July 19, after Apollo 11 had flown behind the moon out
of contact with Earth, came the first lunar orbit insertion maneuver. At about
75 hours, 50 minutes into the flight, a retrograde firing of the SPS for 357.5
seconds placed the spacecraft into an initial, elliptical-lunar orbit of 69 by
190 miles. Later, a second burn of the SPS for 17 seconds placed the docked
vehicles into a lunar orbit of 62 by 70.5 miles, which was calculated to change
the orbit of the CSM piloted by Collins. The change happened because of
lunar-gravity perturbations to the nominal 69 miles required for subsequent LM
rendezvous and docking after completion of the lunar landing. Before this second
SPS firing, another TV transmission was made, this time from the surface of the
moon.
On July 20, Armstrong and Aldrin entered the LM again, made a final
check, and at 100 hours, 12 minutes into the flight, the Eagle undocked and
separated from Columbia for visual inspection. At 101 hours, 36 minutes, when
the LM was behind the moon on its 13th orbit, the LM descent engine fired for 30
seconds to provide retrograde thrust and commence descent orbit insertion,
changing to an orbit of 9 by 67 miles, on a trajectory that was virtually
identical to that flown by Apollo 10. At 102 hours, 33 minutes, after Columbia
and Eagle had reappeared from behind the moon and when the LM was about 300
miles uprange, powered descent initiation was performed with the descent engine
firing for 756.3 seconds. After eight minutes, the LM was at "high gate" about
26,000 feet above the surface and about five miles from the landing
site.
The descent engine continued to provide braking thrust until about
102 hours, 45 minutes into the mission. Partially piloted manually by Armstrong,
the Eagle landed in the Sea of Tranquility in Site 2 at 0 degrees, 41 minutes,
15 seconds north latitude and 23 degrees, 26 minutes east longitude. This was
about four miles downrange from the predicted touchdown point and occurred
almost one-and-a-half minutes earlier than scheduled. It included a powered
descent that ran a mere nominal 40 seconds longer than preflight planning due to
translation maneuvers to avoid a crater during the final phase of landing.
Attached to the descent stage was a commemorative plaque signed by President
Richard M. Nixon and the three astronauts.
The flight plan called for the
first EVA to begin after a four-hour rest period, but it was advanced to begin
as soon as possible. Nonetheless, it was almost four hours later that Armstrong
emerged from the Eagle and deployed the TV camera for the transmission of the
event to Earth. At about 109 hours, 42 minutes after launch, Armstrong stepped
onto the moon. About 20 minutes later, Aldrin followed him. The camera was then
positioned on a tripod about 30 feet from the LM. Half an hour later, President
Nixon spoke by telephone link with the astronauts.
Commemorative
medallions bearing the names of the three Apollo 1 astronauts who lost their
lives in a launch pad fire, and two cosmonauts who also died in accidents, were
left on the moon's surface. A one-and-a-half inch silicon disk, containing micro
miniaturized goodwill messages from 73 countries, and the names of congressional
and NASA leaders, also stayed behind.
During the EVA, in which they both
ranged up to 300 feet from the Eagle, Aldrin deployed the Early Apollo
Scientific Experiments Package, or EASEP, experiments, and Armstrong and Aldrin
gathered and verbally reported on the lunar surface samples. After Aldrin had
spent one hour, 33 minutes on the surface, he re-entered the LM, followed 41
minutes later by Armstrong. The entire EVA phase lasted more than two-and-a-half
hours, ending at 111 hours, 39 minutes into the mission.
Armstrong and
Aldrin spent 21 hours, 36 minutes on the moon's surface. After a rest period
that included seven hours of sleep, the ascent stage engine fired at 124 hours,
22 minutes. It was shut down 435 seconds later when the Eagle reached an initial
orbit of 11 by 55 miles above the moon, and when Columbia was on its 25th
revolution. As the ascent stage reached apolune at 125 hours, 19 minutes, the
reaction control system, or RCS, fired so as to nearly circularize the Eagle
orbit at about 56 miles, some 13 miles below and slightly behind Columbia.
Subsequent firings of the LM RCS changed the orbit to 57 by 72 miles. Docking
with Columbia occurred on the CSM's 27th revolution at 128 hours, three minutes
into the mission. Armstrong and Aldrin returned to the CSM with Collins. Four
hours later, the LM jettisoned and remained in lunar orbit.
Trans-Earth
injection of the CSM began July 21 as the SPS fired for two-and-a-half minutes
when Columbia was behind the moon in its 59th hour of lunar orbit. Following
this, the astronauts slept for about 10 hours. An 11.2 second firing of the SPS
accomplished the only midcourse correction required on the return flight. The
correction was made July 22 at about 150 hours, 30 minutes into the mission. Two
more television transmissions were made during the trans-Earth
coast.
Re-entry procedures were initiated July 24, 44 hours after leaving
lunar orbit. The SM separated from the CM, which was re-oriented to a
heat-shield-forward position. Parachute deployment occurred at 195 hours, 13
minutes. After a flight of 195 hours, 18 minutes, 35 seconds -- about 36 minutes
longer than planned -- Apollo 11 splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, 13 miles
from the recovery ship USS Hornet. Because of bad weather in the target area,
the landing point was changed by about 250 miles. Apollo 11 landed 13 degrees,
19 minutes north latitude and 169 degrees, nine minutes west longitude July 24,
1969.
Crew
Neil Armstrong
Commander
Edwin E. Aldrin Jr.
Lunar Module Pilot
Michael Collins
Command Module Pilot
Backup Crew
James A. Lovell
Commander
Fred W.
Haise Jr.
Lunar Module Pilot
William A. Anders
Command Module
Pilot
Payload
Columbia (CSM-107)
Eagle (LM-5)
Prelaunch Milestones11/21/68 - LM-5 integrated systems
test
12/6/68 - CSM-107 integrated systems test
12/13/68 - LM-5 acceptance
test
1/8/69 - LM-5 ascent stage delivered to Kennedy
1/12/69 - LM-5
descent stage delivered to Kennedy
1/18/69 - S-IVB ondock at Kennedy
1/23/69 - CSM ondock at Kennedy
1/29/69 - command and service module
mated
2/6/69 - S-II ondock at Kennedy
2/20/69 - S-IC ondock at Kennedy
2/17/69 - combined CSM-107 systems tests
2/27/69 - S-IU ondock at
Kennedy
3/24/69 - CSM-107 altitude testing
4/14/69 - rollover of CSM
from the Operations and Checkout Building to the Vehicle Assembly Building
4/22/69 - integrated systems test
5/5/69 - CSM electrical mate to Saturn
V
5/20/69 - rollout to Launch Pad 39A
6/1/69 - flight readiness test
6/26/69 - Countdown Demonstration Test
Launch
July 16,
1969; 9:32 a.m. EDT
Launch Pad 39A
Saturn-V AS-506
High Bay 1
Mobile Launcher Platform-1
Firing Room
1
Orbit
Altitude: 118.65 miles
Inclination: 32.521 degrees
Orbits: 30 revolutions
Duration: eight days, three hours, 18 min, 35
seconds
Distance: 953,054 miles
Lunar Location: Sea of Tranquility
Lunar Coordinates: .71 degrees north, 23.63 degrees east
LandingJuly 24, 1969; 12:50 p.m. EDT
Pacific
Ocean
Recovery Ship: USS Hornet
All photographs on this website are courtesy of the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration, specifically the
NASA
History Office and the NASA JSC Media Services Center.
May 24, 1969,
Apollo 11 Saturn V on launch pad 39A S69-38660.
Apollo 11 Saturn V on launch pad 39A July 1, 1969. Liftoff of
Apollo 11. S69-39525. Liftoff of
...
Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui
(1.06 MB)
