A look at how the countdown to history proceeded that day.
Apollo 11 launched from Kennedy Space Center 50 years ago this morning, the start of an eight-day, 953,000-mile journey which would take the first humans to the surface of the moon and return them home.
The 36-story Saturn V rocket with astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins blasted off at 9:32 a.m. on July 16, 1969 from launch pad 39A.
Using NASA logs and historical data, here’s a look back at how the countdown to history proceeded that day.
Time to wake up
Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins are awakened in their crew quarters at Kennedy Space Center. They quickly dress with Aldrin in a blue-andgold plaid short-sleeved shirt, Armstrong and Collins in white shortsleeved shirts. They undergo a physical examination and are declared “flightready,” NASA says.
They move to a dining room where “the normal astronaut fare on launch day” is awaiting them: A breakfast of orange juice, steaks, scrambled eggs, toast and coffee. As the astronauts sit down at a table with white table cloths and white china, two other men join them.
The first is Deke Slayton, one of the original Mercury astronauts. After being grounded for health reasons, he became NASA’s Director of Flight Crew Operations and the man who assigned Apollo astronauts to their missions. It was his decision to have Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins go to the moon on Apollo 11.
Also joining the astronauts is Apollo 11 backup command module pilot Bill Anders, who was the lunar module pilot on Apollo 8 and the man who took the famous “Earthrise” photo. With his role as mission backup now complete, he’s leaving NASA to become Executive Secretary of the National Aeronautics and Space Council.
It is a quick breakfast for the five men, just 25 minutes. A photo from the meal showed Slayton going over some maps with the astronauts as their finish their food.
Suiting up and checking out
Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins begin putting on their spacesuits. Each specially-made garment weighs 35.6 pounds, and it takes a team of NASA workers dressed in all white to help each man into his suit.
Zippers are zipped, gloves are fastened, straps are tightened. As the assembled suits become heavier, the astronauts sit in recliners – tan ones for Armstrong and Collins, a gray one for Aldrin.
Once their clear plastic helmets are attached, the astronauts start breathing pure oxygen from a portable system about the size of a suitcase.
While the astronauts are still getting dressed, work continues at launch pad 39A where their Saturn V rocket awaits. At the 320-foot level, the hatch of the Command Module is opened and Fred Haise, the Apollo 11 backup lunarmodule pilot, prepares to go aboard to make some preliminary checks.
After a planned hold of 1 hour and 32 minutes, the countdown for Apollo 11 resumes with 3 hours, 30 minutes on the clock. .
Journey to moon starts with 8-mile trip
Flashbulbs flash and cheers rise as the astronauts emerge from the crew facility to enter a small motor home-sized vehicle that will take them the first 8 miles of their mission to the moon, from the crew quarters to the launch pad. Armstrong and Aldrin wave while Collins gives a couple of hearty nods to the crowd.
“The trip in the transfer van should take some 15 minutes or so to reach the pad,” explains Jack King, the NASA public affairs officer whose commentary is heard during launches, “at which time the astronauts board the first of two elevators for the trip to the 320-foot level at the launch pad where they will then proceed to ingress the spacecraft.”
A problem at the launch pad
As the astronauts are riding to the launch pad, King breaks some potentially bad news. “We have a leak in a valve located in a system associated with replenishing liquid hydrogen for the third stage of the Saturn V launch vehicle. We have sent a team of three technicians and a safety man to the pad and these technicians are now tightening bolts around the valve.”
The Apollo 11 crew arrives at the launch pad. Their vehicle backs up outside a first-stage elevator the astronauts board to reach another elevator to take them up to the top of the rocket and their capsule. “At this time, the prime crew for Apollo 11 has boarded the high-speed elevator from inside the A level of the mobile launcher,” King says. “This is the highspeed elevator; 600 feet per minute, which will carry them to the 320-foot level, the spacecraft level.”
Armstrong enters the command module and takes his seat position on the left.
Collins, who’ll be sitting on the right-hand side during liftoff, boards the spacecraft.
Aldrin now enters the spacecraft. He’ll sit in the middle seat during liftoff. As Lunar Module Pilot, his normal position would be on the right-hand