Apollo 11: Chronology of an epic

SPACE CENTER, Houston -- Chronology of Apollo 11's flight to the moon

Wednesday, July 16, 1969

9:32 a.m. EDT -- Astronauts Neil A. Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin E. "Buzz" Aldrin blasted off from Cape Kennedy atop a Saturn 5 and orbited earth.

12:16 p.m. -- Saturn re-ignited on schedule, hurling Apollo 11 out of earth orbit toward the moon.

12:56 p.m. -- Command ship docked nose-to-nose with lunar lander, pulling landing craft free of Saturn 5 top stage. Saturn 5 was fired by remote control into solar orbit. The docking was one minute ahead of schedule.

11:02 p.m. -- Crew began a nine hour rest period.

Thursday, July 17, 1969

8:01 a.m. -- Crew awakened.

11:37 a.m. -- Crew works on navigation exercises which gave them problems earlier in flight.

12:11 p.m. -- Midcourse correction firing of main engine to refine the course to the moon.

4:45 p.m. -- Astronauts keep in trim by jogging, sending back unscheduled television pictures of the exercise.

7:32 p.m. -- Astronauts beamed back 35-minute live, color television show from their capsule.

9:42 p.m. -- The astronauts began a 10-hour sleep period, with a simple, "Good night all."

Friday, July 18, 1969

9:30 a.m. -- The astronauts awakened after a late sleep and Aldrin radioed the ground, "Good morning, Houston."

11:00 a.m. -- Aldrin and Collins radioed back their observations of weather on earth and described a huge cloud cover over the Mediterranean.

4:40 p.m. -- Apollo 11 began the longest live space television show as Armstrong and Aldrin prepared to enter the lunar lander for a checkout.

7:30 p.m. -- The television show over the astronauts closed the hatch on the LM.

9:59 p.m. -- The astronauts rest period began, but they remained awake for a short time.

11:12 p.m. -- The Apollo 11 spacecraft crossed the barrier from the influence of earth gravity into the pull of the moon.

Saturday, July 19, 1969

1:13 p.m. -- Apollo 11 went behind the moon, losing communications with earth.

1:21 p.m. -- Spacecraft dropped into lunar orbit.

3:57 p.m. -- Apollo 11 started 38-minute color telecast of lunar surface to earth.

5:37 p.m. -- First lunar orbit ended.

6:57 p.m. -- Astronauts entered lunar lander for inspections.

9:21 p.m. -- Astronauts returned to command module.

10:32 p.m. -- Crew began nine-hour sleep period while orbiting moon.

Sunday, July 20, 1969

7:10 a.m. -- Apollo 11 crew wakes, after six hour sleep.

1:47 p.m. -- Eagle moon lander separates from Columbia.

4:05 p.m. -- Eagle fires landing engine 46,000 feet above the moon to begin descent to lunar surface.

4:17.42 p.m. -- Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin E. Aldrin land Eagle on the moon.

10:27 p.m. -- Eagle is depressurized in preparation for the opening of the door to lunar surface.

10:36 p.m. -- Armstrong reports the door unlocked, opening the way for his descent to the surface.

10:56 p.m. -- Armstrong climbs down nine-step ladder and down onto the dusty moon surface.

11:06 p.m. -- Armstrong reaches down with a net-like sample collector to scoop up bulk soil.

11:16 p.m. -- Aldrin follows Armstrong to the moon surface, hopping from Eagle's last step to to land with both feet in fine-grained dust.

11:43 p.m. -- Armstrong plants the American flag on the lunar surface.

11:50 p.m. -- President Nixon places 250,000-mile phone call to Armstrong and Aldrin on the moon.

Monday, July 21, 1969

12:58 a.m. -- Aldrin returns to Eagle, ending his walk on the moon.

1:07 a.m. -- Armstrong steps back on Eagle's ladder after two hours and 11 minutes on the lunar surface.

4 a.m. -- Mission control gives Armstrong and Aldrin a goodnight. An hour and a half later, Mission Control says Collins, making his 21st orbit of the moon in Columbia, is sleeping soundly. Armstrong is reported resting but not sleeping and Aldrin is not hooked up to report back biomedical data.