59 Fun Facts About Apollo 11

On what date did Apollo 11's lunar module land on the Moon?

The mission launched on July 16 and splashed down on July 24; touchdown came at 20:17 UTC.

Which crew member stayed in lunar orbit aboard the command module while the other two landed?

He was the second person to orbit the Moon alone, after John Young on Apollo 10.

What was the call sign of the Apollo 11 lunar module?

The name came from the bald eagle on the mission patch; the command module was Columbia.

The command module was named Columbia after Columbiad, a giant cannon in a novel by which author?

In From the Earth to the Moon (1865) the cannon fires a spacecraft from Florida, of all places.

The Apollo 11 mission patch was designed by which crew member?

The crew left their names off it so it would represent everyone who had worked on the landing; the eagle later appeared on the Eisenhower dollar.

What does the eagle on the Apollo 11 patch carry in its talons?

It was first drawn in the beak, but was moved after Bob Gilruth felt the bare talons looked too warlike.

Roughly how many spectators watched Apollo 11 launch from nearby beaches and highways?

President Nixon watched from the White House with astronaut Frank Borman at his side.

Which Soviet probe launched three days before Apollo 11 in a bid to return lunar samples first?

It crashed in Mare Crisium about two hours before Armstrong and Aldrin lifted off from the surface.

In which lunar 'sea' did Eagle land?

The site had been judged flat and smooth by Ranger 8, Surveyor 5 and the Lunar Orbiter mapping craft.

During the descent, the guidance computer flashed which pair of program alarm codes?

They meant executive overflow: the computer was too busy, thanks to a rendezvous radar left switched on, and shed low-priority tasks.

Which Mission Control engineer told Steve Bales it was safe to keep descending despite the alarms?

Hamilton, who ran the software effort at MIT, later said blaming the computer was like blaming the person who calls the fire department.

Armstrong took semi-automatic control of Eagle as the computer steered toward boulders near which 300-foot-wide feature?

The crater was about 300 feet across; he considered landing short of it to sample the boulders but was moving too fast.

By the data available at the time, how many seconds of fuel did Eagle have left at landing?

Post-mission analysis suggested the true figure was closer to 50 seconds; 216 pounds of usable fuel remained.

Which CAPCOM answered Armstrong's landing call from the surface with the words 'We're breathing again'?

He was so relieved he stumbled over the word Tranquility; he later walked on the Moon himself on Apollo 16.

For decades Aldrin believed the decision that Armstrong would step out first was driven largely by what?

A simulation with Aldrin going first ended with him damaging the simulator; Chris Kraft later revealed managers had met to make sure Armstrong went first.

About how long after landing did Armstrong step onto the surface?

The moment came at 02:56:15 UTC on July 21, after the crew skipped a planned rest period.

Armstrong's first words on the Moon are printed with which bracketed word he insisted he said?

Explanations range from his accent slurring the words to gaps in the audio link caused by storms near Parkes Observatory.

How many minutes after Armstrong did Aldrin step onto the Moon?

His first description of the view was two words: magnificent desolation.

The moonwalk was broadcast live to an estimated audience of about how many people?

That was roughly a fifth of the world's population; the best pictures came through Honeysuckle Creek and then Parkes in Australia.

The first food and liquid consumed on the Moon were what?

Aldrin, a Presbyterian elder, took communion privately with a kit prepared by his pastor; his church still marks the day each July.

Roughly how far into the hard lunar surface were the astronauts able to push the flagpole?

Aldrin had wanted the flag-raising to go smoothest of all his jobs; the telescoping rod fought them.

What happened to the American flag when Eagle's ascent stage lifted off?

Aldrin looked up in time to see it fall in the engine exhaust; later crews planted their flags farther from the LM.

From where did Nixon make his 'most historic phone call' to the astronauts on the Moon?

He had a long speech ready but Frank Borman persuaded him to keep it short.

The plaque on Eagle's ladder ends with which sentence?

It bears two drawings of Earth and the signatures of the three astronauts and President Nixon.

About how much lunar material did Armstrong and Aldrin collect?

The rocks were basalt and breccia and yielded three new minerals, including armalcolite, named for Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins.

Which Apollo 11 surface experiment was still in use by scientists more than 50 years after the landing?

The seismic package died when its uplink failed on August 25, 1969, but lasers were still being bounced off the mirrors in the 2020s.

The astronauts' silicon disc left on the Moon carried goodwill messages from how many countries' leaders?

The disc is about the size of a 50-cent piece; the messages were etched at 1/200 scale.

The crew left memorial items on the surface, including a mission patch honouring which flight's crew?

The bag also held medals for the Soviet cosmonauts Gagarin and Komarov, tossed down at the last minute from Aldrin's sleeve pocket.

What did the crew use to push in the ascent-engine circuit breaker Aldrin had accidentally broken?

The nonconductive tip of a Duro felt-tip pen did the job and got them off the Moon.

Which aircraft carrier recovered the Apollo 11 crew after splashdown in the Pacific?

President Nixon was aboard to greet them; the recovery area was moved at the last minute to dodge a storm.

How long were the astronauts kept in quarantine after returning from the Moon?

The practice continued for Apollo 12 and 14 until the Moon was shown to be lifeless.

The Apollo 11 command module Columbia is preserved where?

Eagle's descent stage remains on the Moon; the ascent stage was jettisoned in lunar orbit.

The August 13, 1969, ticker-tape parades in New York and Chicago drew an estimated crowd of how many?

That evening a state dinner in Los Angeles saw each astronaut receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

What was the name of the 38-day world tour the crew made in autumn 1969?

It ran from September 29 to November 5 and took in Bogota, Buenos Aires, London, Belgrade, Tehran, Mumbai and Sydney among others.

William Safire's speech 'In Event of Moon Disaster' was for Nixon to read if what happened?

The plan was to cut communications and let the men die on the surface with a clergyman commending their souls to the deep.

Which spacecraft photographed the Apollo landing sites in 2009 clearly enough to show foot trails?

In 2012 a team funded by Jeff Bezos also located the Saturn V's F-1 engines on the Atlantic seabed.

After Armstrong's death, his widow found a white cloth bag in a closet containing what?

The items should have been left behind in Eagle; the bag went to the National Air and Space Museum in 2015.

Neil Armstrong was born and raised near which Ohio town?

The town now has the Armstrong Air and Space Museum; he took his first flying lessons at its airfield.

Armstrong flew the Grumman F9F Panther from the carrier USS Essex in which war?

The Navy paid his tuition at Purdue, and he later flew the X-15 seven times as a test pilot at Edwards.

On which mission did Armstrong perform the first spacecraft docking before a stuck thruster forced an abort?

It made him NASA's first civilian astronaut in space; David Scott was his pilot.

After leaving NASA in 1971, Armstrong taught aerospace engineering where?

He chose it over his alma mater partly because its aerospace department was small; he stayed until 1979.

Buzz Aldrin's nickname came from his little sister mispronouncing which word?

'Buzzer' became Buzz, and it became his legal first name in 1988; Buzz Lightyear was named after him.

What was the maiden name of Buzz Aldrin's mother?

Marion Moon Aldrin lived in Montclair, New Jersey, where her son was later a football state champion.

What nickname did Aldrin's MIT thesis on orbital docking guidance earn him among astronauts?

He was the first astronaut with a doctorate, and knew the name was not always meant kindly.

How many MiG-15s did Aldrin shoot down flying F-86 Sabres in Korea?

He flew 66 combat missions; the first kill came on May 14, 1953, near the Yalu River.

Michael Collins lost his Apollo 9 prime-crew seat to backup Jim Lovell after surgery for what condition?

The diagnosis was a cervical disc herniation requiring two vertebrae to be fused; Collins spent three months in a neck brace. The Apollo 8 and 9 crews later swapped places, which is why the seat is often described as Apollo 8's.

Collins was dropped from Apollo 8 in favour of Jim Lovell after needing surgery for what?

Two vertebrae were fused at Wilford Hall; the swap put him on the crew that would land.

After leaving NASA, Collins became director of which institution in 1971?

He held the post until 1978, then became undersecretary of the Smithsonian; his 1974 memoir is Carrying the Fire.

Who was Apollo 11's backup commander?

His backup crew of Anders and Haise would normally have flown Apollo 14, but was moved up to Apollo 13 so Shepard could get more training.

Which body did Bill Anders leave the astronaut corps to join in August 1969?

Ken Mattingly trained in parallel as backup command module pilot in case a delay pushed the launch past Anders's departure.

Which three astronauts made up Apollo 11's support crew?

The support crew, a role added for Apollo, kept flight plans and checklists current and drafted emergency procedures.

Neil Armstrong's personal kit on Eagle carried wood and fabric from which historic aircraft?

It also held a diamond-studded astronaut pin the Apollo 1 widows had given to Deke Slayton after the fire.

How many personal preference kits, each weighing half a pound, were carried on Apollo 11?

Three were stowed on Columbia before launch and two on Eagle.

How many programs written in the ATOLL language partly automated Apollo 11's launch operations?

The countdown went fully automatic at three minutes twenty seconds before launch, with more than 450 people at consoles in the firing room.

What did the crew eat for their traditional pre-flight breakfast on launch day?

Deke Slayton woke them shortly after 4 a.m.; the crew then donned suits and began breathing pure oxygen.

Which backup crewman helped Armstrong into his couch aboard Columbia about three hours before launch?

Armstrong took the left couch, Collins the right and Aldrin the centre; Haise left the capsule about two hours ten minutes before liftoff.

How long was Michael Collins out of radio contact with Earth on each orbit behind the Moon?

He reported not loneliness but 'awareness, anticipation, satisfaction, confidence, almost exultation'.

How did Collins fix a coolant temperature problem in Columbia while alone in lunar orbit?

Mission Control had told him to run Malfunction Procedure 17; his simpler fix worked and he carried on with housekeeping.

Roughly how many samples from the Apollo Moon rocks are sent to researchers each year?

The main collection sits at Johnson Space Center in Houston, mostly stored in nitrogen, with a backup at White Sands in New Mexico.