Apollo 11

Apollo 11 was the spaceflight which landed the first humans,[clarification needed] Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, Jr, on Earth's Moon on July 20, 1969, at 20:17:39 UTC. The United States mission is considered the major accomplishment in the history of space exploration.

Launched from the Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39 in Merritt Island, Florida on July 16, Apollo 11 was the fifth manned mission, and the third lunar mission, of NASA's Apollo program. The crew consisted of Armstrong as Commander and Aldrin as Lunar Module Pilot, with Command Module Pilot Michael Collins. Armstrong and Aldrin landed in the Sea of Tranquillity and became the first humans to walk on the Moon on July 21. Their Lunar Module, Eagle, spent 21 hours 31 minutes on the lunar surface, while Collins remained in orbit in the Command/Service Module, Columbia.[2] The three astronauts returned to Earth on July 24, landing in the Pacific Ocean. They brought back 47.5 pounds (21.5 kg) of lunar rocks.

Apollo 11 fulfilled U.S. President John F. Kennedy's goal of reaching the Moon before the Soviet Union by the end of the 1960s, which he had expressed during a 1961 mission statement before the United States Congress: "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 the Earth."[3]

Six additional Apollo missions flew to the Moon and five landed between 1969 and 1972.

Contents

[hide] 1 Crew 1.1 Backup crew

1.2 Support crew

1.3 Flight directors

2 Call signs

3 Mission highlights 3.1 Launch and lunar orbit injection

3.2 Lunar descent

3.3 Lunar surface operations

3.4 Lunar ascent and return

3.5 Splashdown and quarantine

4 Spacecraft location

5 Mission insignia

6 40th anniversary events

7 Video gallery

8 Photo gallery

9 See also

10 References

11 Further reading

12 External links 12.1 NASA reports

12.2 Multimedia

[edit] Crew

Position

Astronaut

Commander

Neil A. Armstrong

Second spaceflight

Command Module Pilot

Michael Collins

Second spaceflight

Lunar Module Pilot

Edwin "Buzz" E. Aldrin, Jr.

Second spaceflight

Each crewman of Apollo 11 had made a spaceflight before this mission, making it only the second all-veteran crew (the other being Apollo 10) in human spaceflight history.[4]

Collins was originally slated to be the Command Module Pilot (CMP) on Apollo 8 but was removed when he required surgery on his back and was replaced by Jim Lovell, his backup for that flight. After Collins was medically cleared, he took what would have been Lovell's spot on Apollo 11; as a veteran of Apollo 8, Lovell was transferred to Apollo 11's backup crew, but promoted to backup commander.

[edit] Backup crew

Position

Astronaut

Commander

James A. Lovell, Jr.

Command Module Pilot

William A. Anders

Lunar Module Pilot

Fred W. Haise, Jr.

In early 1969, Bill Anders accepted a job with the National Space Council effective in August 1969 and announced his retirement as an astronaut. At that point Ken Mattingly was moved from the support crew into parallel training with Anders as backup Command Module Pilot in case Apollo 11 was delayed past its intended July launch (at which point Anders would be unavailable if needed) and would later join Lovell's crew and ultimately be assigned as the original Apollo 13 CMP.[5]

[edit] Support crew

Aldrin unpacks experiments from the LM, named Eagle. Charlie Duke, Capsule Communicator (CAPCOM)

Ronald Evans (CAPCOM)

Owen K. Garriott (CAPCOM)

Don L. Lind (CAPCOM)

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Bruce McCandless II (CAPCOM)

Harrison Schmitt (CAPCOM)

Bill Pogue

Jack Swigert

[edit]