This is the Apollo 11 timeline of the flight which was launched 50 years ago today.
I will be posting each days events as it happened until the splashdown occurs on the 24th of July.
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Today was very busy day for the the astronauts and the mighty Saturn V is launched, and they prepare everything and start their journey towards The Moon.
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The astronauts awoke and had their traditional steak and egg breakfast.
(It binds everything up to delay things coming out the other end so quickly).
Once suited up and sealed in by the technicians, they started to breath pure oxygen to get rid of any nitrogen in the body. This would help prevent them developing the dreaded bends as nitrogen bubbles out into the blood and tissues once the pressure in the capsule is reduced.
They then rode the astronaut bus out to the launch pad 39A at Cape Canaveral and were placed into the Command Module.
10:02 – Countdown resumed. T-3 hours 30 minutes.
13:32 – Launch of Saturn V rocket from Cape Canaveral.
13:33 – Speed of Mach 1 achieved.
13:34 – First stage (S-IC) is now jettisoned as the fuel within it has been expended.
The first stage contained 1,204,000 litres of Liquid Oxygen and 770,00 litres of Kerosene at launch.
This fuel was consumed by the five F-1 engines at 13 tonnes per second and used up in just 2 minutes and 40 seconds.
Stack has reached an altitude of 66 km and is 93 km downrange from the launch pad and is now travelling at 6,000 miles per hour.
13:34 – Second (S-II) stage ignition.
13:35 – SII aft interstage jettisoned.
13:35 – Launch escape tower jettisoned.
13:41 – S-IC should have impacted into the Atlantic Ocean 357 miles from the launch pad.
984,000 litres of Liquid Hydrogen and 303,000 litres of liquid Oxygen have been burnt in the second S-II stage by the five J-2 Engines.
Speed of remaining stack is now up to 15,000 miles per hour.
13:41 – Second Stage S-II and third stage (S-IVB) separate.
S-IVB burn starts.
This single J-2 engine can be re-started and will be used three times.
It will initially be fired 2 separate times to achieve Earth orbit.
13:43 – S-IVB burn cutoff.
13:43 – Earth orbital insertion.
This means that the remaining stack has now had it’s trajectory changed to obtain a stable Earth orbit.
13:52 – S-II second stage should have impacted into the Atlantic Ocean 3,815 km from the launch pad.
16:16 – S-IVB starts a second burn to modify the orbit around the Earth.
16:22 – S-IVB second burn ends.
16:22 – Third burn of the J-2 engine occurs.
Speed is now up to 25,000 miles per hour, enough to escape Earth’s gravity and send it away from Earth.
This is the Trans Lunar Injection (TLI) burn to send the stack towards The Moon.
252,750 litres of liquid Hydrogen and 73,280 litres of liquid oxygen were consumed by the S-IVB third stage.
16:47 – Command/Service Module stack (CSM) un-docks from the S-IVB.
The CSM then performs a manoeuvre to rotate round to face the now exposed Lunar Module (LM).
16:56 – Command/Service Module docks with LM / S-IVB.
17:49 – LM extracted from S-IVB.
18:12 – CSM/LM evasive manoeuvre from S-IVB.
19:09 – Lunar Slingshot manoeuvre ignition.
19:14 – Lunar Slingshot manoeuvre cutoff.
The empty S-IVB stage is destined to go into a heliocentric (Sun-centred) orbit.