Apollo 11’s journey to the moon, annotated

Video from the channel Vox about Apollo 11, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 5:14. Language: English. Video type: Documentary.

An animated explanatory piece that follows Apollo 11's journey step by step, from launch to splashdown. It shows how the Saturn V and the Apollo spacecraft progressively shed components until only a small command module remained.

Apollo 11 launched from Cape Kennedy on July 16, 1969, with Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins aboard. It was the culmination of the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union. The video presents the Saturn V's three stages and the spacecraft's parts: the lunar module, the service module, the command module, and the launch escape tower.

The first stage carried the spacecraft to an altitude of about 68 km and a speed of about 9,700 km/h. After its separation the escape tower was jettisoned and the second stage continued accelerating. The third stage left the spacecraft in a parking orbit at about 166 km and reignited for trans-lunar injection. Afterward, the command and service module turned 180 degrees, docked with the lunar module, and extracted it; the entire launch sequence lasted about three and a half hours. After three days of travel, Armstrong and Aldrin descended in the Eagle while Collins remained in orbit in the Columbia. After about 21 and a half hours on the surface, the Eagle lifted off to rejoin the Columbia, and trans-Earth injection began a two-and-a-half-day return. Before reentry, at about 40,000 km/h, the service module was jettisoned, and the Columbia splashed down in the Pacific.