European Union Forums

[Theresa.G.Hawkins]

How many travel days it take astronauts to travel from Earth to the moon?

[Des]

It could take from 2-5 days. I'm not sure on the exact number, but I'm pretty sure it's 3 or so.

[Elroy]

I believe it is three there and three back
(more or less)

[James.L.Lansford]

About 3 days between leaving an orbit around Earth and settling into an orbit around the moon.

After launch on Saturn V SA-504 on July 16, 1969 from pad 39A of Kennedy Space Center, Apollo 11 entered Earth orbit. After 1 1/2 Earth orbits, the S-IVB stage was re-ignited at 16:16:16 UT for a translunar injection burn of 5 minutes, 48 seconds putting the spacecraft on course for the moon. The CSM separated from the S-IVB stage containing the LM33 minutes later, turned around and docked with the LM at 16:56:03 UT. About an hour and 15 minutes later the S-IVB stage was injected into heliocentric orbit. During translunar coast a color TV transmission was made from Apollo 11 and on July 17 a 3-second mid-course correction burn of the main engine was performed. Lunar orbit insertion was achieved on July 19 at 17:21:50 UT by a retrograde firing of the main engine for 357.5 seconds while the spacecraft was behind the moon and out of contact with Earth. A later 17 second burn circularized the orbit. On July 20 Armstrong and Aldrin entered the LM for final checkout. At 18:11:53 the LM and CSM separated. After a visual inspection by Collins, the LM descent engine fired for 30 seconds at 19:08 UT, putting the craft into a descent orbit with a closest approach 14.5 km above the moon's surface. At 20:05 the LM descent engine fired for 756.3 seconds and descent to the lunar surface began