Browse the archive

The whole archive on one page — the mission in chapters, every article, every source.

This knowledge base covers the Apollo 11 mission (first crewed lunar landing, July 1969), drawn from twenty-four sources — NASA primary documents plus two AAAS Science reprints on the laser-ranging experiment. The original syntheses built on it are catalogued under Analyses below.

Topics

The mission in chapters — start here.

Apollo 11master map of the mission. Flight operationsthe two spacecraft, powered descent and landing, ascent and rendezvous, and the trip home into quarantine. The moonwalkthe suits, egress, moving in 1/6 g, the prioritized surface tasks, and contingencies. Planning, procedures, and trainingthe plans, the as-flown checklists, the simulations, and plan-vs-actual. Communications and the public recordthe three voice records, the TV broadcast, and the photographic record. Apollo lunar surface experimentsthe EASEP instruments. Lunar geology and samplescollection, classification, dating, curation.

Concepts

Every article in the archive, grouped by theme.

Mission & spacecraft

• Apollo 11 mission
• Lunar Module Eagle
• Command and Service Module Columbia
• Tranquility Base (Landing Site 2)
• LROC imaging of the Apollo 11 landing site
• GOSS NET 1 air-to-ground communications
• Television broadcast and surface communications
• Lunar quarantine and back-contamination

EVA & surface operations

• Powered descent and landing
• Apollo 11 EVA (first moonwalk)
• Apollo 11 EVA planned vs. actual timeline
• Apollo 11 EVA life-support and mobility equipment
• Apollo 11 LM onboard checklists
• Crew health and biomedical performance on Apollo 11
• Apollo 11 training and simulations
• Lunar dust as an operational problem
• Lunar surface mobility in one-sixth gravity
• Apollo 11 contingency EVA procedures
• Apollo 11 surface photography
• Apollo 11 photographic index
• Ceremonial and symbolic surface activities
• Lunar ascent and rendezvous
• Apollo 11 nominal mission timeline

Surface experiments

• Early Apollo Scientific Experiments Package (EASEP)
• Passive Seismic Experiment (S‑031)
• Laser Ranging Retroreflector (S‑078)
• Lunar laser ranging: results and legacy
• Lunar seismicity and interior structure (PSE results)
• Solar Wind Composition experiment (S‑080)

Samples & geology

• First-order results of Apollo 11
• Apollo 11 sample inventory
• Lunar sample collection and containers
• Apollo 11 sampling tools and containers
• Apollo 11 lunar sample types
• Lunar regolith and soil mechanics
• High-titanium mare basalt
• Apollo 11 basalt suites (high‑K and low‑K)
• Minerals first identified in Apollo 11 samples
• Lunar sample numbering and curation
• Lunar field geology (Experiment S-059)
• Surface exposure and space weathering

Reference

Quick lookups.

• Apollo 11 glossary — every acronym and term of art in the wiki, with a one-line definition and a link to the article that owns it.

Sources

What each document is, and why it matters.

• Apollo 11 Lunar Surface Operations Plan — pre-flight surface/EVA plan (MSC, 1969).
• Apollo 11 Flight Plan (Final, AS-506) — the GET-tagged “as-planned” mission timeline (MSC, Jul 1 1969).
• Apollo 11 LM Lunar Surface Checklist (LM-5) — the onboard surface-stay book: stay/no-stay, EVA prep, ascent readiness (MSC, Jun 16 1969).
• Apollo 11 LM Systems Activation Checklist — LM activation procedures and the CSM-to-LM transfer list (MSC, Jul 8 1969).
• Apollo 11 Press Kit (Release 69-83K) — pre-flight public mission overview, objectives, and experiments (NASA, Jun 1969).
• Apollo 11 EVA Procedures (Final) — crew checklist for planned and contingency EVA (MSC, May 1969).
• EASEP Handbook for Apollo 11 Flight Crew — crew handbook for the deployed experiments (GE/MSC, 1969).
• Apollo 11 Preliminary Science Report — first science results (NASA SP‑214, 1969).
• Apollo 11 Lunar Sample Information Catalogue — sample curation record (JSC 12522, 1977).
• Catalog of Apollo Lunar Surface Geological Sampling Tools and Containers — engineering catalog of the sampling hardware (Allton, JSC-23454, 1989).
• Apollo 11 Photography Index (70mm and 16mm) — frame-by-frame catalog of the returned imagery (MSC Mapping Sciences Lab, 1969).
• Apollo 11 Technical Air-to-Ground Voice Transcription — GOSS NET 1 transcript (1969).
• Apollo 11 Spacecraft Commentary (PAO) — the as-broadcast PAO mission narration (MSC, Jul 1969).
• Apollo 11 Onboard Voice Transcription (CM DSE) — the intra-cabin command-module recorder tape (NASA, Aug 1969).
• Apollo 11 Technical Crew Debriefing — Volume 1 — crew’s first-person debrief: descent + surface EVA (MSC, Jul 31 1969).
• Apollo 11 Technical Crew Debriefing — Volume 2 — same debrief: return phases, systems, human factors (MSC, Jul 31 1969).
• Apollo 11 Mission Report (MSC-00171) — the comprehensive official engineering-and-science report (MSC, Nov 1969).
• LROC NAC imagery of the Apollo 11 landing site — Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter view of the site (~25 cm/px, 2011).
• Apollo 11 Lunar Sample Compendium — 53 per-sample dossiers (C. Meyer, NASA JSC, 2009–2011).
• The Lunar Laser Ranging Experiment (Bender et al., 1973) — the PIs’ four-year report: LR³ origins, first returns, early science (Science, © AAAS).
• Lunar Laser Ranging: A Continuing Legacy (Dickey et al., 1994) — the 25-year LLR retrospective: lunar recession, relativity tests (Science, © AAAS).
• Biomedical Results of Apollo (NASA SP-368) — program-wide medical retrospective, mined for Apollo 11 (1975; text edition).
• Results from the Apollo Passive Seismic Experiment (Latham et al., 1977) — the PSE team’s network results: the quiet Moon, moonquakes, the molten core (NASA SP-370; text edition).
• Neil A. Armstrong — JSC Oral History (2001) — the commander’s retrospective interview (memory vs. record).

Analyses

Original syntheses that read across the whole collection — browse the findings.

• The last three minutes — Eagle’s final approach across three voice records, measured against the 2011 LROC image.
• One moment, three records — the landing and the first step, side by side across three independent records.
• One hour, four layers — the EVA-prep overrun traced through the full procedural chain.
• Plan vs. actual — the moonwalk measured against its pre-flight script.
• Apollo 11 EVA — annotated master timeline — the minute-by-minute chronology of the first moonwalk.
• Anomalies and malfunctions register — every malfunction the Mission Report logged (§16), transcribed.
• Where did each rock actually come from? — a provenance biography of all 53 returned samples.
• Returned samples — master table — every Apollo 11 sample in one table.
• Tranquility Base photo-map — sampling zones and deployed hardware on the orbital image.
• The discrepancy ledger — where the primary record disagrees with itself.
• Memory vs. record — Armstrong’s 2001 oral history against the 1969 documents.
• What did Apollo 11 actually establish about the Moon? — the first-order scientific results, synthesized.
• Follow Apollo 11 in real time — a day-by-day anniversary companion (July 16–24).
• Reading the library: three guided paths — a guided tour through all 24 sources.
• Glossary — every acronym and term of art used across the wiki.