Where is apollo 11

This Command Module, no. The Command Module is the only portion of the spacecraft to return to Earth. Support at base width : 12 ft. Skip to main content.

You are here Home nasm A Apollo 11 Command Module Columbia. Previous Next. The following day, Armstrong and Aldrin begin their descent to the lunar surface in the Lunar Module, Eagle. The planned landing site in the Sea of Tranquility was selected as a flat, safe location and had been surveyed by Apollo 10 at an elevation of 10 miles above the Moon.

However, a navigation error earlier in the mission caused Eagle to be about 7 kilometers beyond the planned landing location. During the The last of these alarms occurred less than three minutes before landing, when the crew was less than meters above the surface. Because of the navigation error, the computer was guiding the spacecraft towards an unsafe touchdown point in the rugged, boulder-filled ejecta field surrounding West Crater.

The TLI placed Apollo on a "free-return trajectory" - often illustrated as a figure of eight shape. This course would have harnessed the power of the Moon's gravity to propel the spacecraft back to Earth without the need for more rocket fuel. However, when Apollo 11 neared its destination, astronauts performed a braking manoeuvre known as "lunar orbit insertion" to slow the spacecraft and cause it to go into orbit around the Moon.

From there, Armstrong and Aldrin descended to the surface. A total of 10 lunar modules were sent into space and six landed humans on the moon. Once used, the ascent stages of the capsules were jettisoned and either crash-landed on the moon, burned up in Earth's atmosphere, or - in one instance - went into orbit around the Sun. But where exactly they ended up is not known in every case.

The first two Lunar Modules were used in test flights and burned up in Earth's atmosphere. Apollo 10's Lunar Module, which went to the Moon but didn't land, was jettisoned into space and went into orbit around the Sun. Apollo 13's Lunar Module performed a vital "lifeboat" role when that mission had to be aborted following an explosion. Most of the other modules - once they had safely returned astronauts back to the Command Module in lunar orbit - were dispatched to crash-land back on the surface.

The crash sites of most are known - but no-one is quite sure where the ascent stages of Apollo 11's module Eagle or Apollo 16's module Orion ended up. How did the US put the first men on the Moon? To the Moon and beyond. Read: Just leave Michael Collins alone. The tracks outside of the blast zone were likely undisturbed, though, and most anything made with metals—the lower half of the Eagle, a seismometer, commemorative plaques, assorted tools—has probably fared well on the moon.

And one of the experiments is still going. Armstrong and Aldrin placed on the surface a boxy array of mirrors designed to reflect incoming light back to its source without significantly scattering. Several times a month, Tom Murphy, a physics professor at the University of California at San Diego, instructs a telescope in southern New Mexico to beam a laser at the instrument. The light sprints home in two and a half seconds. During an eclipse, when the near side of the moon is in darkness, the reflectors return to their usual performance.

No one has ever returned to the site of Apollo In preparation for a potential moon rush , NASA has created guidelines for future commercial spacecraft that include no-fly zones and warnings to keep a distance.

The Apollo 11 site is a historical landmark, and it should be treated as such, says Michelle Hanlon, a co-founder of For All Moonkind, an organization of lawyers who specialize in space law.