![]() ![]() approaching for a rendezvous with the Apollo Command Module manned by Michael Collins. The Lunar Module ascent stage with moon-walking astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin Jr. “You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. We copy you on the ground,” responded fellow astronaut Charlie Duke in Houston. “The Eagle has landed,” Armstrong reported to a white-knuckled Mission Control. Standing side-by-side and peering out small triangular windows, Armstrong and Aldrin brought the LM to a gentle rest and cut the engines. “It was a tense landing, but he knew he could make it.” “I think Armstrong was comfortable,” says Neufeld. “In what’s become a famous moment,” says Neufeld, “Armstrong took over manual control and began maneuvering the spacecraft forward faster so it would skate over the crater to a clear spot beyond it.” 102:45:40: 'The Eagle Has Landed'Īrmstrong, a veteran test pilot, remained cool and collected even as warning alarms blared in the cramped cabin and Mission Control announced only 30 seconds of fuel left in the reserves. At the last minute, with fuel supplies running dangerously low, Armstrong realized that the computer’s auto-landing program was dropping them in the middle of a boulder-strewn crater. Next came the “powered descent” of the LM, what Neufeld calls “the most critical and dangerous part of the flight.” After separating from the CSM, Armstrong and Aldrin piloted the 32,000-pound LM for two hours toward the lunar surface. 100:39:53: Armstrong Maneuvers Descentĭuring the spacecraft’s second pass around the moon, Mission Commander Armstrong and Lunar Module Pilot Aldrin moved from the CSM into the snug confines of the LM to prepare for detachment, leaving Command Module Pilot Michael Collins to anxiously wait and circle in orbit. This is a composite image comprised of two separate shots. The Apollo Lunar Module known as the Eagle descends onto the surface of the moon during the Apollo 11 mission, 20th July 1969. This last move, known as lunar orbit insertion, went off without a hitch, swinging the astronauts around the moon at 62 miles above the lunar surface. Once separated from the Saturn V, the Apollo spacecraft was at the mercy of the Service Module engine for mid-course corrections and for the critical maneuver of slipping into the moon’s weaker gravitational orbit. Once attached, the Apollo 11 spacecraft separated from the Saturn V for good and the Apollo 11 astronauts began their three-day journey across the 238,000-mile expanse between the Earth and the moon. To get the vessels in the right order for lunar orbit and landing, the CSM had to eject from inside the tip of the stage three rocket, pull a 180-degree turn and dock head-first with the top of the LM-all while hurtling through space at nearly 20,000 mph. (When the Command Module was attached to the Service Module, it was called the CSM.) Aside from the Saturn V boosters, the Apollo 11 hardware consisted of three vessels: the Lunar Module (LM), codenamed “Eagle,” to transport two astronauts to and from the moon’s surface the Command Module (CM), codenamed “Columbia,” where all three astronauts hung out during the journey and the Service Module, which held the propulsion and support systems. “If the Saturn V blew up on or near the launch pad, it would have the force of a small nuclear weapon,” says Neufeld.ĭiagram of Lunar Landing Mission and time table of events for the scheduled July 16th blastoff of Apollo 11. Michael Neufeld, a senior curator in the space history department of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, says that the ignition of the Saturn V boosters was the first of many tense moments on Apollo 11. ![]() To fuel all that power, the Saturn V was filled to the brim with nearly a million gallons of kerosene, liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. The three-stage Saturn V was as big as a Navy destroyer, packed 7.5 million pounds of thrust and could catapult the Apollo 11 astronauts to a maximum velocity of 25,000 mph. ![]() To overcome the Earth’s orbital gravity, NASA required a rocket 100 times more powerful than the Mercury boosters that launched the first American astronaut into orbit in 1961. Mission Time 00:00:00: Apollo 11 Launches Johnson view the liftoff of Apollo 11 from pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center at 9:32 am EDT on July 16, 1969. Vice President Spiro Agnew and former President Lyndon B. ![]()
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