Apollo 11: The First Moonwalk

1. 1. Tranquility Base

   Today: Statio Tranquillitatis, Sea of Tranquility, the Moon · Arrived 20 July 1969 · departed 21 July 1969 · Eagle touched down at 20:17:40 UTC on 20 July 1969 (Ground Elapsed Time 102:45:40), with about 25 seconds of descent fuel remaining. The crew then rested before beginning the EVA the following day.

   Armstrong and Aldrin, having separated from Michael Collins in Columbia and flown the Lunar Module down through the final "1201"/"1202" program-alarm-interrupted descent, set Eagle down in the southwestern Sea of Tranquility — the first crewed landing on another world.

   Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.

2. 2. The ladder foot & MESA — first steps

   Today: ~5 m west of the LM footpad, Statio Tranquillitatis · Arrived 21 July 1969 · departed 21 July 1969 · Cabin depressurization and hatch opening began the EVA at 02:39 UTC. Armstrong descended Eagle's ladder and stepped onto the surface at 02:56:15 UTC, 21 July 1969. Within the first few minutes he collected a contingency soil sample with a bagged sampler on a pole, in case an emergency recall cut the EVA short.

   Neil Armstrong became the first human being to stand on another world, near the Lunar Module's Modular Equipment Stowage Assembly (MESA), the fold-down surface camera and equipment locker on Eagle's descent stage.

   That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.

3. 3. The flag & the television camera

   Today: ~5 m north of the LM, Statio Tranquillitatis · Arrived 21 July 1969 · departed 21 July 1969 · Aldrin joined Armstrong on the surface about nineteen minutes after the first step, around 03:15 UTC — descending past the black-and-white television camera the two had positioned to broadcast the EVA live. The flag and commemorative plaque followed shortly after, circa 03:41 UTC.

   With the television camera already broadcasting live to an estimated 600 million viewers on Earth, Armstrong and Aldrin planted the aluminum-staffed American flag — its horizontal rod keeping it 'flying' in the airless vacuum — and read the plaque fixed to Eagle's descent stage: 'Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the Moon... We came in peace for all mankind.'

   Beautiful view. [...] Magnificent desolation.

4. 4. EASEP — seismometer & laser reflector

   Today: ~17 m south-southwest of the LM, Statio Tranquillitatis · Arrived 21 July 1969 · departed 21 July 1969 · Aldrin deployed the Early Apollo Scientific Experiments Package (EASEP) in the roughly hour between the Nixon telephone call and the end of the EVA, circa 04:00-04:45 UTC on 21 July 1969.

   Aldrin off-loaded and deployed the EASEP: the Passive Seismic Experiment Package (PSEP), which recorded moonquakes and meteoroid impacts for three weeks until its battery failed, and the Laser Ranging Retro-Reflector (LR-3), a corner-cube mirror array that is still used today — over half a century later — to measure the Earth-Moon distance to centimetre precision by timing reflected laser pulses from observatories on Earth.

   The passive seismometer has been deployed manually.

5. 5. Little West Crater

   Today: ~60 m east of the LM, Statio Tranquillitatis · Arrived 21 July 1969 · departed 21 July 1969 · In the EVA's closing minutes, shortly before the 05:11 UTC hatch closing, Armstrong made a brief, unscheduled excursion on foot to the southwest rim of the crater mission control informally named 'Little West' — the same 30 m crater he had side-stepped moments before touchdown to avoid its boulder field. It marked the farthest either astronaut travelled from Eagle during the EVA.

   Armstrong walked alone to the rim of Little West Crater and photographed a panorama down into it and back toward the distant Lunar Module, satisfying his own curiosity about the obstacle that had nearly forced him to fly the final seconds of the landing by eye rather than by the planned trajectory.

   I went the farthest. While Buzz was returning from the EASEP, I went back to a big crater behind us... I ran there and ran back because I didn't want to spend much time doing that... It just took a few minutes to lope back there, take those pictures, and then come back.

6. 6. Return & ingress

   Today: At the LM ladder, Statio Tranquillitatis · Arrived 21 July 1969 · departed 21 July 1969 · Armstrong and Aldrin climbed back up Eagle's ladder and closed the hatch at about 05:11 UTC on 21 July 1969, ending the EVA at 2 hours 31 minutes 40 seconds after it began. They lifted off from Tranquility Base the following day, 21 July 1969 at 17:54 UTC, to rejoin Michael Collins in Columbia.

   With 21.5 kg of samples, film magazines and the EASEP left running behind them, Armstrong and Aldrin ended the first human moonwalk and sealed themselves back inside Eagle to rest before the ascent.

   Be advised there's lots of smiling faces in this room, and all over the world.

Published under CC BY-SA 4.0. Sources keep their own open licences. See the Magna Carta of the Seas for how this was verified.