The Apollo 11 mission concluded exactly eight days, three hours, 18 minutes and 35 seconds after launch with a splashdown landing in the Pacific Ocean, about 800 nautical miles southwest of Hawaii and 12 miles from the recovery ship, the USS Hornet. Time Life Pictures/NASA/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images 195:18:35: Splashdown The prospect of Armstrong and Aldrin being stranded on the moon was real enough that President Richard Nixon and his speechwriter William Safire had a condolence speech prepared, which began, “Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace.”Īpollo 11 astronauts (L-R) Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin peering out a quarantine room window aboard recovery ship Hornet following splashdown from their historic moon mission. “There’s only one ascent engine and it’s got to light. “Lift-off made me nervous,” says Neufeld. Neufeld says that this was another nail-biter moment for folks like him watching at home. 124:22:01: A Meal, a Nap, Then Lift-Off From the MoonĪfter a meal and a few hours of sleep, it was time for Armstrong and Aldrin to rejoin Collins and the CSM in lunar orbit. Those included a seismograph for measuring “moonquakes” and the Laser Ranging Retroreflector for measuring the precise distance of the moon from Earth. The two men spent the next two hours taking photographs, recording their impressions of the landscape, collecting piles of moon rocks and soil specimens, and deploying a package of scientific experiments, some which would stay on the moon after they left.

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