The Apollo 11 Flight Plan

NASA’s Manned Spacecraft Center (now Johnson Space Center) in Houston developed the 363-page final Apollo 11 flight plan and it provided the blueprint for human exploration of the Moon for this pioneering expedition.

Armstrong and Aldrin will then inspect the LM, before at 2:22 AM Armstrong backs out through its hatch and, if all goes according to plan, plants his foot on lunar soil.

Apollo 11 Mission Objectives

The Apollo program was an immense undertaking involving over 400,000 engineers, technicians and scientists from 20,000 companies and military branches working to advance research and logistics for $24 billion in total costs. The objective was simple: send humans safely to the moon. Everything came down to one moment on 20 July 1969 when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin touched down safely into the Sea of Tranquility while millions worldwide watched closely.

To be successful, any mission had to undergo many rigorous tests. Development flights provided an early opportunity for this. They served as test missions that verified hardware design, equipment performance and operational techniques while helping control flight costs.

Early tests for Apollo were crucial to its ultimate success. By the time of its inaugural manned landing, both its command and service module and lunar module had been thoroughly examined for any necessary improvements that might ensure successful exploration mission of our Moon.

Lunar Module had even been used to transport a robot on previous missions, leading to rapid development of Apollo spacecraft with its reentry and lunar landing systems.

Once on the Moon, astronauts would perform numerous tasks to meet mission objectives. Their spacecraft would include tools for measuring solar wind reaching the Moon; laser beam receivers which send signals back to astronomical observatories on Earth that allow them to determine exact distance between Moon and Earth; passive seismometers which detect moonquakes even long after astronauts had returned home; and seismographs that detect moonquakes long after returning astronauts have left.

Once Armstrong and Aldrin had spent 21 hours and 36 minutes on the Moon, they would fire their lunar module’s engines to return back into Earth’s atmosphere, jettison it and join Collins in the command module for their return journey home.

All this was detailed in a minute-by-minute mission plan created by astronauts, their crews, and Houston Mission Control staff. NARA offers access to these plans as well as other official mission data files via its National Archives Catalog.

Apollo 11 EVAs

The Manned Spacecraft Center at Houston prepared a 363-page final flight plan for NASA’s July 16 Apollo 11 launch, outlining every technical aspect of this mission in exacting detail, from takeoff through lunar orbit, landing and exploration and return flight. Mission Commander Neil Armstrong and Lunar Module Pilot Buzz Aldrin would make history upon reaching the lunar surface by placing a television camera aimed at transmitting live images back to Earth as they deployed scientific equipment such as solar wind composition experiment, seismic experiment package and Laser Ranging Retroreflector onto its surface as they would also photographing both terrain, scientific equipment deployment sites as well as taking extensive photographs both still and motion picture cameras of them on their voyage back.

Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV), used by astronauts to explore lunar surface. Each EVA or Extra Vehicular Activity was carefully planned in advance to meet specific mission objectives while helping astronauts adjust to its hostile environment. Researchers employed various data sources – topographic information, journal entries by Apollo astronauts and audio and video recordings from Apollo missions were all sources for accurate EVA plans that took real-time into account.

This research revealed a need for an enhanced model of the Moon’s surface. To address this need, the authors created real-time computer evaluation models of its terrain for use in evaluating crew performance and planning lunar surface activities based on both traditional geographic analysis techniques as well as computer simulation techniques.

The Lunar Lander Vehicles were equipped with navigation computers to help astronauts maintain control over their vehicles on the lunar surface, as well as sensors such as radar and inertial measurement units for precise and accurate maneuvering across complex terrain.

After 21 hours and 36 minutes on the lunar surface, Armstrong and Aldrin fired their LM engine to leave lunar orbit and meet with Collins at Columbia command module. A few hours later, Armstrong jettisoned their LM and all three astronauts blasted off in service module for Earth.

Apollo 11 Science Experiments

The six Apollo lunar landings provided the basis for modern planetary science. Lander and command module crews collected rocks, deployed scientific equipment and took photographs of both the surface of the moon and their spacecraft. Furthermore, scientific measurements such as surface temperature and magnetic field strength were taken in order to assess chemical makeup of lunar ejecta blanket. Finally, various experiments such as measuring composition of solar wind particles to setting off explosives with seismic tremor detection capabilities were tested as part of scientific investigations conducted during each landing mission.

NASA’s flight plan for Apollo 11 provided an intricate, minute-by-minute guide that detailed every action needed for a safe trip from earth to moon and back again. NARA’s National Archives Catalog holds many such flight plans; each represents an impressive feat of engineering.

Each is a step-by-step account of the mission from its conception at Kennedy Space Center until liftoff from lunar orbit, landing and exploration, return flight and splashdown back on Earth.

Flight planners at Apollo varied their considerations depending on whether a mission was manned or unmanned and whether or not it was experimental or operational. When planning for manned missions, crew safety was the main goal; while for unmanned development flights planners concentrated on reaching as many test objectives as possible.

Armstrong and Aldrin were to use Eagle, while Collins would remain in Columbia as command module, to explore the Sea of Tranquility while Armstrong deployed an Early Apollo Scientific Experiment Package featuring passive seismic experiment and laser range retroreflector; collected samples of lunar material; took photographs both of Moon terrain as well as scientific equipment deployed; took still and motion picture photographs using television camera; deployed Early Apollo Scientific Experiment Package with passive seismic experiment and laser range retroreflector; deployed Early Apollo Scientific Experiment Package as passive seismic experiment and laser range retroreflector; deployed the Early Apollo Scientific Experiment Package to gather samples; collect samples; gather samples; deploy Early Apollo Scientific Experiment Package equipment including passive seismic experiment and laser range retroreflector; collected samples; photographed all these activities using television camera.

NASA scientists back home studied data sent back by their telemetry instruments as the astronauts explored. As they did so, they noticed that the footprints left by astronauts were deeper than expected and concluded that an extra layer of heat likely built up on the lunar surface due to human footsteps as well as sunlight and radio waves from space – warming by 2 to 3 degrees over a month’s period.

Apollo 11 Return to Earth

Once completed their lunar surface explorations, the astronauts began planning for their return home. They reviewed and entered data they gathered into a return flight trajectory back towards the Pacific Ocean; eventually separating from their command and service module (CSM) before entering Earth’s atmosphere, landing several hours later on July 24 in this location.

As Armstrong and Aldrin disembarked from the Eagle, Collins was already 60 nautical miles overhead in Columbia and instructed to search with his navigational sextant for any sign of lunar module – Houston had provided map coordinates to aid his search, yet Collins never located it; any precise determination would need to await postmission analysis.

Lunar Module Ascent (LMA) touched down at 20:56 UTC, 102 hours, 47 minutes and 11 seconds after leaving Cape Kennedy. Armstrong again touched down upon its surface remarking: ‘That is one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind!

The astronauts spent 21 hours and 36 minutes on the Moon before returning to the CSM. On their final day on lunar orbit, they fired up their service module’s engines to transition out and back into Earth’s atmosphere en route back to Pacific Ocean.

NARA’s Apollo 11 Flight Plan serves as humanity’s blueprint to the Moon–a detailed playbook detailing every step taken during their voyage and safe return home from space. Reproductions have been produced of this document before but often had errors and were dirty scans; NARA has restored and improved this digital version to preserve an invaluable record of humankind’s greatest achievement in space exploration and make it available online to view or download via their National Archives Catalog; PDF files require Adobe Reader software.