Apollo+40: Catching up with Apollo 11

Apollo 11 spent the rest of their first flight day with several key accomplishments:

1) Transposition & Docking - CMP Mike Collins was at the controls as CSM Columbia separated from the S-IVB third stage, turned around, and docked with and then extracted LM Eagle from the now spent Saturn booster.

2) Establishing Passive Thermal Control (PTC) - the crew placed their spacecraft into a slow "barbecue roll" so that the sun's heat energy would be equally distributed during the trans-lunar coast.

3) Mission control determined that Apollo 11's trajectory was about spot on, so the first scheduled mid-course correction maneuver was deleted from the flight plan. Apollo 11 will execute a mid-course correction today at 12:16 PM, 26:44:58 MET.

With the exception of the mid-course correction and regular spacecraft housekeeping tasks, flight day 2 is a quiet one for the crew. There's some excitement scheduled for tomorrow as CDR Neil Armstrong and LMP Buzz Aldrin board Eagle in flight for the first time to make sure that all is well with their lander.

At about noon today and just before the mid-course correction maneuver, 26:27:00 MET, the Mission Control PAO reported that Apollo 11 was 108,594 nautical miles from earth with a velocity of 5,057 feet per second.

Crew quote of the day:

Houston, Apollo 11...I've got the world in my window. -- CMP Michael Collins, approximately 26:07:20 MET.