Apollo 11 nominal mission timeline
What Apollo 11 was scheduled to do, hour by hour, as set out in the Apollo 11 Flight Plan (Final, July 1 1969) — the GET-tagged “as-planned” spine against which the flown mission is measured. The plan is built on hour-wide sheets with parallel CMP / CDR / LMP activity columns and a lunar-revolution (REV) count; this article captures the lunar-surface day, where the plan and reality diverged most.
Reading the mission clock (GET ↔ UTC)
Section titled “Reading the mission clock (GET ↔ UTC)”The master clock is ground elapsed time (GET) — hours:minutes:seconds since liftoff. Liftoff was 9:32:00 a.m. EDT on July 16, 1969 = 13:32:00 UTC (mission), which fixes a one-line conversion good for the whole flight:
UTC = July 16, 13:32:00 + GET; EDT = UTC − 4 h (carry the day as the hours roll past 24).
Worked: the landing (GET 102:45:40 = 4 d 6:45:40) → July 20, 20:17:40 UTC = 4:17 p.m. EDT; the first step (GET 109:24:48) → July 21, 02:56:48 UTC = 10:56 p.m. EDT, still July 20 in the U.S. — which is why American memory dates the step “July 20” while the universal clock reads the 21st. The clock-true, hour-by-hour companion for any anniversary is Follow Apollo 11 in real time.
The planned surface day
Section titled “The planned surface day”The Flight Plan scheduled the surface stay as rest first, then walk:
- A first rest period before the EVA. The sheets carry a 4-hour REST PERIOD and a 1-hour EAT PERIOD after landing, with a STAY/NO-STAY for EVA prep check at ~110:30 and PLSS/OPS donning through 111–112.
- EVA: 112:30 → 115:18 GET (~2 h 40 min). “START EVA” (cabin depress, open forward hatch) at 112:30; CDR egress to the platform at 112:39 — release the MESA, turn the TV on, descend the ladder; EVA termination 114:43, hatch closed and cabin repressurized by END EVA 115:18.
The planned EVA task order (GET):
| GET | Planned task |
|---|---|
| 112:39 | CDR egress; release MESA; TV on; descend ladder |
| ~112:50 | Environmental familiarization; contingency sample |
| 113:00+ | LMP egress; TV deployment (carry to site, tripod, panorama) |
| 113:19 | Solar Wind Composition foil deployed in the Sun |
| 113:30 | Bulk sample collection; weigh, pack and seal the SRC |
| ~113:38 | LM inspection; deploy the close-up camera (ALSCC) |
| 114:00 | EASEP deployment — LR³ (laser reflector) and PSE (seismometer, 114:06) |
| ~114:10 | Documented sample collection |
| 114:30 | Retrieve & stow the SWC foil; core-tube sample; close & seal SRC |
| 114:43 | EVA termination; ascend ladder |
| 115:18 | Hatch closed, cabin repressurized — END EVA |
This is the priority-ordered sequence the LSOP laid out (contingency → bulk → experiments → documented), and the EASEP, sampling, and SWC steps map onto the concepts that cover each in detail.
Plan vs. reality
Section titled “Plan vs. reality”The crew flew the sequence nearly intact but moved the schedule: they took the EVA ~3 hours early, swapping it ahead of the planned rest period (actual egress 109:24 vs the plan’s 112:39), and absorbed per-task overruns by trimming the documented sample. The two ceremonial acts that became iconic — the plaque, flag, and the President’s call — appear nowhere in this nominal timeline. The full task-by-task comparison (Mission Report Table 11-I) is in Apollo 11 EVA planned vs. actual timeline; this concept is the plan side it measures against. The plan also bracketed the surface stay by the powered descent (landing ~102:45 GET) and lunar ascent (liftoff ~124:22 GET).
The whole-mission spine (as flown)
Section titled “The whole-mission spine (as flown)”Beyond the surface day, the as-flown GET anchors of the full flight — read from the air-to-ground transcript and gathered in the real-time companion:
| GET | Milestone |
|---|---|
| 000:00:00 | Liftoff — 9:32 a.m. EDT, July 16 |
| 000:11:45 | Earth orbit insertion |
| 002:44:19 | Translunar injection (TLI) — outbound |
| 076:21:56 | Lunar orbit insertion confirmed — “like — like perfect!”, 60.9 × 169.9 nm |
| 100:18:04 | Eagle undocks — “The Eagle has wings” |
| 102:45:40 | Touchdown at Tranquility Base |
| 109:24:48 | The first step |
| 111:39:13 | Hatch closed — EVA ends |
| 124:21:54 | Lunar liftoff — ascent & rendezvous |
| 128:03:12 | Docking with Columbia |
| 134:37:53 | GO for transearth injection (TEI) — homeward |
| 195:18:18 | Splashdown — ~8 d 3 h 18 m after liftoff; the transcript’s last word |
A quiet sub-finding of the as-flown record: most midcourse corrections were never needed. MCC-1 was scrubbed (006:19:23), MCC-3 deleted (048:12:17), MCC-4 waived (069:18:26), MCC-6 unneeded; only MCC-2 (026:45:38, translunar) and MCC-5 (150:28:31, transearth) actually burned — a measure of how accurate the Saturn V injection and the SPS burns were.
Related
Section titled “Related”- Apollo 11 EVA planned vs. actual timeline
- Apollo 11 EVA (first moonwalk)
- Ceremonial and symbolic surface activities
- Powered descent and landing
- Lunar ascent and rendezvous
- Apollo 11 mission
Sources
Section titled “Sources”- Apollo 11 Flight Plan (Final, AS-506)
- Apollo 11 Press Kit (Release 69-83K) — corroborates the 22-hour surface stay and up-to-2 h 40 min EVA duration
- Apollo 11 Technical Air-to-Ground Voice Transcription — the as-flown GET anchors of the whole-mission spine