Moon landing how long did it take

The last men to walk on the moon, astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt of the Apollo 17 mission, left the lunar surface on December 14, The expense was justified by Kennedy's mandate to beat the Soviets to the moon, and after the feat was accomplished, ongoing missions lost their viability. Landed on the Moon? But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present.

It was a feat for the ages. On July 20, , American astronaut Neil Armstrong stepped off the lunar landing module Eagle, and became the first human to walk on the surface of the moon. Nearly , miles from Earth, Armstrong spoke these words to more than a billion people listening at home: "That's The non-stop campaign of testing and launches was also a race against time—specifically to honor slain president John F.

The Eagle The event was the culmination of a technological race started by President John F. Kennedy in with the goal of beating The moment is etched in the collective memory of an entire generation—the blurry black-and-white image of Neil Armstrong descending the stairs of the Apollo 11 lunar module on July 20, to become the first human being to step foot on the moon. Their work processing data and performing complicated calculations was critical to the success of the space programme.

When the first computers appeared, many of Nasa's early programmers and coders were these women. The film Hidden Figures, released in , told the story of these maths wizards, bringing their stories to a mass audience for the first time. One woman in particular, Katherine Johnson, became known for her work calculating trajectories for the first Americans in space, Alan Shepard and John Glenn, and later for the Apollo Lunar Module and Command Module on flights to the Moon.

Apollo 11's flight path took the spacecraft into Earth orbit 11 minutes after launch. Just over two hours later, during its second orbit, the rocket's third stage fired again to boost Apollo towards the moon - the so-called Trans Lunar Insertion or TLI.

The TLI placed Apollo on a "free-return trajectory" - often illustrated as a figure of eight shape. This course would have harnessed the power of the Moon's gravity to propel the spacecraft back to Earth without the need for more rocket fuel.

However, when Apollo 11 neared its destination, astronauts performed a braking manoeuvre known as "lunar orbit insertion" to slow the spacecraft and cause it to go into orbit around the Moon. From there, Armstrong and Aldrin descended to the surface. A total of 10 lunar modules were sent into space and six landed humans on the moon. Once used, the ascent stages of the capsules were jettisoned and either crash-landed on the moon, burned up in Earth's atmosphere, or - in one instance - went into orbit around the Sun.

But where exactly they ended up is not known in every case. The first two Lunar Modules were used in test flights and burned up in Earth's atmosphere. After just Altogether, Apollo 11 spent 2. The crew returned safely to Earth on July 24, landing in the Pacific Ocean southwest of Hawaii, after a flight of 8 days and 3 hours.

Although scientists considered it unlikely that the Moon had life on it, the crew was kept in a biological quarantine for 21 days. Post-mission analysis showed that the Apollo 11 samples consisted of two primary rock types. Basalt is formed by the solidification of molten magma. After one swing around the planet, the third-stage J-2 rocket ignited, hurling the Apollo astronauts out of near-Earth orbit and on a trajectory toward the moon.

Diagram of Lunar Landing Mission and time table of events for the scheduled July 16th blastoff of Apollo Next came a truly tricky dance move. 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 degree turn and dock head-first with the top of the LM—all while hurtling through space at nearly 20, mph.

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 ,mile expanse between the Earth and the moon. 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. The Apollo Lunar Module known as the Eagle descends onto the surface of the moon during the Apollo 11 mission, 20th July This is a composite image comprised of two separate shots.

Armstrong, 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. Standing side-by-side and peering out small triangular windows, Armstrong and Aldrin brought the LM to a gentle rest and cut the engines.