ESA - ESA history - On this day: 40 years ago

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Earth seen by Apollo crew hours before reentry

On this day: 40 years ago

23 July 1969
At 2:08 a.m. CEST, a live TV transmission to Earth begins. Afterwards the crew start another sleep period.

5:20 p.m. The crew awakens and begins relaxed checking of systems and conversation with Mission Control.

8:56 p.m. Spacecraft passes midway point of journey homeward, 330 000 km from splashdown.

Apollo 11 after splashdown
11:47 a.m. CEST, 24 July The last day of the mission, the crew awakens after another sleep period and begins to prepare for splashdown.

5:35 p.m. Command and Service Modules are separated and the Command Module re-enters Earth's atmosphere.

5:51 p.m. Spacecraft splashes down 1500 km southwest of Hawaii about 25 km miles from the recovery ship, the USS Hornet.

More information:

ESA celebrates the 40th anniversary of mankind first setting foot on the Moon and pays tribute to the men and women who took part in this endeavour, some of whom are still active in NASA, ESA and international space programmes. A series of articles chronicles each day of the historic mission 40 years ago, from launch to landing, with many rarely-seen archive photographs and highlights of some fascinating European contributions to lunar exploration.

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