Sunday, July 19, 2009

Apollo+40: Apollo 11 Behind the Moon

The critical LOI burn has to take place out of contact with the Earth as Apollo 11 passes behind the Moon. Immediately prior to loss of signal (LOS), Mission Control took one more look at the telemetry, and let Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins know that all was well:

75:40:33 (CAPCOM): Apollo 11, this is Houston. All your systems are looking good going around the corner, and we'll see you on the other side. Over.

75:40:42 (Armstrong): Roger. Everything looks okay up here.

A couple of seconds later, contact was lost with Apollo 11 as they passed out of sight behind our nearest neighbor. At LOS, Apollo 11 was 309 nautical miles from the moon with a velocity of 7,664 feet per second.

LOI, if successful, would slow Apollo 11 by 2,914 feet per second. The burn would begin in just under nine minutes.

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