Apollo 11

One museum, two locations Visit us in Washington, DC and Chantilly, VA to explore hundreds of the world’s most significant objects in aviation and space history. Free timed-entry passes are required for the Museum in DC. At the museum and online Discover our exhibitions and participate in programs both in person or virtually. Dive deep into air and space Browse our collections, stories, research, and on demand content. For teachers and parents Bring the Air and Space Museum to your learners, wherever you are. Be the spark Your support will help fund exhibitions, educational programming, and preservation efforts. Over half a century ago, on July 20, 1969, humans walked on the Moon for the first time. We look back at the legacy of our first small steps on the Moon and look forward to the next giant leap. Jump to a Section: The Mission 1962 "We choose to go to the Moon." The Soviet Union launched the first human, Yuri Gagarin, into space on April 12, 1961. Within days of the Soviet achievement, President John F. Kennedy asked Vice President Lyndon Johnson to identify a “space program which promises dramatic results in which we could win.” A little over a month later, on May 25, 1961, Kennedy stood before a joint session of Congress and called for human exploration to the Moon. Read more Apollo speeches Choosing a Moon Rocket About the rocket A Soviet Moonshot? Explore diaries Three Approaches to Landing on the Moon The approaches July 16, 1969 Liftoff! Eight years later, a Sa...

Credit: Encyclopædia Britannica INC. From the time of its launch on July 16, 1969, until the return splashdown on July 24, almost every major aspect of the flight of Apollo 11 was witnessed via television by hundreds of millions of people in nearly every part of the globe. The pulse of humanity rose with the giant, 111-metre- (363-foot-) high, 3,038,500-kg (6,698,700-pound) Saturn V launch vehicle as it made its flawless flight from Pad 39A at Cape Kennedy (now Cape Canaveral), Florida, before hundreds of thousands of spectators. So accurate was the translunar insertion that three of the en route trajectory corrections planned were not necessary. Aboard Apollo 11 were Armstrong, Aldrin, and command module pilot Michael Collins. Their enthusiasm was evident from the beginning. This Saturn gave us a magnificent ride.…It was beautiful! Neil Armstrong exclaimed. The third stage of the Saturn then fired to start the crew on their 376,400-km (234,000-mile) journey to the Moon. The three astronauts conducted their transposition and docking maneuvers, first turning the command module Columbia and its attached service module around and then extracting the lunar module from its resting place above the Saturn’s third stage. On their arrival the astronauts slowed the spacecraft so that it would go into lunar orbit. Apollo 11 entered first an elliptical orbit 114 by 313 km (71 by 194 miles) and then a nearly circular orbit between 100 and 122 km (62 and 76 miles) above the surface of t...

The Cold War space race began with the Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik, the first artificial satellite. The United States responded with the launch of Explorer 1, which discovered the Van Allen radiation belts, and ultimately developed the rockets and spacecraft needed to carry astronauts It was one of the most remarkable periods in United States history, especially given the moon program's extraordinary cost and technical difficulty. Here are the major events on the road to the 1957: • Oct. 4: The Soviet Union launches Sputnik, the first artificial satellite. 1958: • Jan. 31: Explorer 1, the first U.S. satellite, is launched; discovers Van Allen radiation belts. • July 29: The National Aeronautics and Space Act is signed, creating the civilian space agency. • Oct. 7: NASA starts the Mercury program, leading to development of one-man space capsules designed to prove humans can live and work in space. 1959: • Jan. 3: Alaska becomes the 49th state. • Jan. 4: The Soviet Union's Luna 1 becomes the first spacecraft to reach the moon's vicinity. • Feb. 16: Fidel Castro becomes prime minister of Cuba. • April 9: Seven astronauts are selected for the Mercury program: Alan Shepard, Virgil "Gus" Grissom, John Glenn, Scott Carpenter, Wally Schirra, Gordon Cooper and Donald "Deke" Slayton. • December: NASA begins development of Saturn rockets. America's first astronauts 12 photos 1960: • July: Apollo is selected as the name for NASA's advanced manned space flight program. • Nov. 8: J...

On Wednesday evening, Lamont-Doherty director Sean Solomon will speak on a panel honoring the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing. Sean Solomon has served as the director of Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory since 2012. Much of his recent research has focused on the geology and geophysics of the solar system’s inner planets. He was the principal investigator for NASA’s The beginning of Solomon’s research career coincided with the birth of a new field — planetary science. Below, he explains how Apollo 11 affected the scientific community at that time, how Lamont was involved, and what comes next for lunar exploration. Solomon discussed these topics and more during a panel discussion entitled “ At what point were you in your career when Apollo 11 landed the first humans on the Moon? I was a graduate student at MIT, and I was doing a thesis in seismology. However, I had written a paper about the interior structure of the Moon before the Apollo 11 mission. MIT faculty and students were holding discussions about the Moon in advance of the Apollo 11 landing, so we were primed to think about the impact of the mission’s findings. How did the Moon landing affect you personally? I was glued to the television set watching the landing and the Moon walks like everybody else. It was a singular event in history for humans to walk on another planetary body. It captivated everyone. The landing and Neil Armstrong’s first steps onto the lunar surface were wat...