--- title: How Apollo 11 Got to the Moon | TIME description: When the Apollo 11 mission reached the moon, it was the successful culmination of several missions over nine years canonical: https://time.com/video/PkL4DeYm/ og:title: How Apollo 11 Got to the Moon og:description: When the Apollo 11 mission reached the moon, it was the successful culmination of several missions over nine years og:url: https://time.com/video/PkL4DeYm/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/PkL4DeYm/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Apollo 11 Got to the Moon twitter:description: When the Apollo 11 mission reached the moon, it was the successful culmination of several missions over nine years twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/PkL4DeYm/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # How Apollo 11 Got to the Moon > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: How Apollo 11 Got to the Moon [Watch (HLS stream): How Apollo 11 Got to the Moon](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/PkL4DeYm.m3u8) (3:09)  _Published 2009-07-15. When the Apollo 11 mission reached the moon, it was the successful culmination of several missions over nine years_ --- Jul 28, 2023 4:14 AM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [TIME Immersive's Apollo 11 'Landing on the Moon' Experience](/video/TMEksECS/) ### TIME Immersive's Apollo 11 'Landing on the Moon' Experience [Unseen Apollo: Going To The Moon Through Astronaut's Eyes](/video/c43u4clG/) ### Unseen Apollo: Going To The Moon Through Astronaut's Eyes [buzz-aldrin-easep-apollo-11-moon-landing](/video/tPdr9fKz/) ### buzz-aldrin-easep-apollo-11-moon-landing --- ## Transcript >> That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. >> On July 20th, 1969, Neil Armstrong said these famous words, as the first person to set foot on the moon. >> Now we're getting a picture on the TV. >> Great. >> But that one day, that one moment, was actually 9 grueling years in the making. From launch pad to splash down, nearly every detail of Apollo 11's mission had been meticulously rehearsed and tested by NASA astronauts, engineers, systems people, and thousands of support workers. The rocket that pushed them into space, the Saturn V, was the biggest then and since. But it evolved from pretty humble beginnings. In 1962, NASA's Mercury- Redstone program shut Alan B. Shepard into suborbital space, atop a modified ICBM. That's a nuclear missile with a 5- foot, 11- inch man inside instead of a bomb. Missiles don't get you very far, or at least not far enough. So NASA scientists realized that to get a spaceship to escape earth's gravity all together, they were going to need something of unimaginable power. Eight years and 21- man launches later, they have their behemoth of a booster which was taller than the spires of St. Patrick's Cathedral. Apollo 11 was actually two spacecrafts. The command module had to detach from the last stage, spin around and dock with the landing module, all while traveling in space at the speed of 35, 579 feet per second. So how did they do it? NASA's Gemini program was designed to test this maneuver in 1966. At one point, Gemini astronauts Neil Armstrong and Dave Scott went into such a dangerously uncontrolled spin during the docking run. They almost died. A roundtrip to the moon was expected to last nearly 14 days, which would be comparable to spending a fortnight locked in a station wagon. NASA had no idea if people could handle such a journey either physically or mentally. So Gemini astronauts Frank Borman and Jim Lovell orbited the earth seated next to each other, shoulder to shoulder for 2 weeks, bumping up against the overhead doors only inches from their heads. >> Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed. >> As for the actual landing on the moon, well, how can you practice that? 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