Apollo 11 Press Kit (Release 69-83K)
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Source document: 1969-07-06-apollo-11-press-kit-release-69-83k.pdf (scanned). Searchable text layer: 1969-07-06-apollo-11-press-kit-release-69-83k_djvu.htm (Internet Archive DjVu OCR — user-provided, since the scanned PDF is not text-extractable in this environment).
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Original: NASA Release No. 69-83K, Apollo 11 Lunar Landing Mission Press Kit, Office of Public Affairs, Washington — dated June 26, 1969, issued to the press ~July 6, 1969.
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Available online: Internet Archive — Apollo 11 Press Kit (Release 69-83K).
Summary
Section titled “Summary”NASA’s pre-flight public information kit — the “as-intended” mission described for the press before launch. It walks the planned mission (objectives, the flight sequence, the lunar-surface EVA, recovery), describes the spacecraft and Saturn V, the experiments, the plaque and flags, and carries crew biographies and a program background. It is the public/press companion to the engineering planning documents — most useful here as an “as-planned” foil that corroborates the Flight Plan and adds concrete pre-flight numbers, with the caveat that everything in it is intent, not the flown record.
Key takeaways
Section titled “Key takeaways”- Mission frame. Launch 9:32 a.m. EDT, July 16, 1969 from KSC Launch Complex 39-A; the fifth crewed Apollo flight and the third to the Moon. A ~22-hour lunar stay with up to 2 h 40 min of EVA — corroborating the planned EVA duration in the nominal timeline.
- The plaque (descent-stage leg, signed by President Nixon and the crew), with the as-designed inscription: “HERE MEN FROM THE PLANET EARTH FIRST SET FOOT UPON THE MOON. JULY 1969 A.D. WE CAME IN PEACE FOR ALL MANKIND” — note the plaque’s “men” where the air-to-ground transcript rendered Armstrong’s spoken reading as “Man.”
- Flags. Besides the flag emplanted on the surface, the crew carried two large U.S. flags, flags of the 50 states, D.C. and territories, of other nations, and of the United Nations.
- Planned EASEP layout: SWC a few feet from the LM, LR³ ~70 ft, PSE ~80 ft.
- Sampling kit (MESA): B&W TV camera, large scoop, extension handle, tongs, gnomon, hammer, 35-mm stereo camera, two SRCs (capacity ~130 lb), and the cabin-stowed contingency sample container (~1 liter into a suit pocket).
- Nominal ascent: LM ascent-engine ignition 124:23:21 GET, 7 min 14 s burn, 6,055 fps, two-phase (vertical clearance then insertion into a 9×45-nm orbit) — the planned counterpart to lunar ascent and rendezvous.