top of page

Overview of Apollo 11

The 363-foot-tall Apollo 11 space vehicle was launched from Pad A, Launch Complex 39, Kennedy Space Center, at 8:32 a.m. EST, July 16, 1969. It was the United States' first lunar landing mission. The launch vehicle, AS-506, was the sixth in the Apollo Saturn V series and was the fourth manned Saturn V vehicle. After a 2½-hour checkout period, the spacecraft was injected into the translunar phase of the mission.

The Apollo 11 mission was the eleventh flight using Apollo  hardware. This was the first lunar landing of the entire Program. An interesting fact is that this flight was also the fifth manned flight of ​the command and service modules and the third flight of the lunar module. The United States were to perform a manned lunar landing and return the citizens safely back to Earth. The astronauts completed several tasks to accomplish during extravehicular activity (EVA) operations, on the moon's surface. They planned to gather lunar samples, deploy experiments, and photograph the surface. The EVA lasted approximately 2.5 hours. All scientific activities were completed satisfactorily, all instruments were deployed, and samples were collected.

bottom of page