How did the Apollo 11 return to Earth?

At 1:53 pm on July 21 the astronauts lifted off from the Moon in the module’s ascent stage and then rendezvoused with Collins and the orbiting spacecraft. The three explorers fired away from lunar orbit on July 22 and returned to Earth on July 24.

How did Apollo reentry work?

Most reentry capsules have used an ablative heat shield for reentry and been non-reusable. The Apollo command module reentered with the center of mass offset from the center line; this caused the capsule to assume an angled attitude through the air, providing lift that could be used for directional control. …

How hot did Apollo 11 get back to Earth?

5,000 degrees Fahrenheit
When the Apollo 11 flight crew returned from the historic Moon expedition on July 24, 1969, their command module pierced the Earth’s atmosphere traveling at 36,237 feet per second and became engulfed in a fireball burning at 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit. This NASA rendering depicts the Apollo 11 capsule during re-entry.

How did Apollo 11 survive reentry?

Once safe in the ocean, the spacecraft’s ventilation system allowed fresh air into the capsule. The astronauts used VHF recovery beacon and radios to guide a recovery ship to the spacecraft’s location. A ship recovered the crew and capsule.

How hot does reentry get?

During re-entry, the shuttle is going so fast, it compresses the air ahead of it. The compression of the air layers near the leading edges of the shuttle is quick, causing the temperature of the air to rise to as high as 3000 degrees Fahrenheit! Being in contact with the shuttle, it heats the shuttle’s surface.

What happens to the Apollo 11 module when it returns to Earth?

Reentry After the journey back from the Moon, the Apollo 11 command module sheds flaming pieces of its protective ablative covering as it hurtles through the Earth atmosphere toward splash down, July 24, 1969.

What happened on the Apollo 11 flight log?

Apollo 11 Flight Log, July 24, 1969: Return to Earth. The first major milestone took place at 12:21 p.m., when they separated the command module from the “service module”, which carried items such as oxygen tanks and electrical systems that were intended to keep the command module working properly during its journey to the moon and back.

Did Apollo 11 really go off without a hitch?

According to our records, the flight plan of Apollo 11 went off without a hitch. Chosen as the mission to fulfill then-President Kennedy’s goal of performing a crewed lunar landing and successful return to Earth, the timeline appeared to go exactly as planned.

What was the first major milestone in the Apollo 11 mission?

The first major milestone took place at 12:21 p.m., when they separated the command module from the “service module”, which carried items such as oxygen tanks and electrical systems that were intended to keep the command module working properly during its journey to the moon and back.