how long was apollo 11 trip to the moon

How long does it take to get to the moon?

Here we explore how long it takes to get to the moon and the factors that affect the journey to our rocky companion.

• Traveling at the speed of light
• Fastest spacecraft
• Driving to the moon

Q&A with an expert

• Calculating travel times

Moon mission travel times

Additional resources, bibliography.

If you wanted to go to the moon, how long would it take? 

Well, the answer depends on a number of factors ranging from the positions of Earth and the moon , to whether you want to land on the surface or just zip past, and especially to the technology used to propel you there.

The average travel time to the moon (providing the moon is your intended destination), using current rocket propulsion is approximately three days. The fastest flight to the moon without stopping was achieved by NASA's New Horizons probe when it passed the moon in just 8 hours 35 minutes while en route to Pluto . 

Currently, the fastest crewed flight to the moon was Apollo 8. The spacecraft entered lunar orbit just 69 hours and 8 minutes after launch according to NASA .

• How long does it take to get to Mars?
• Explore the moon like never before with All About Space magazine

Here we take a look at how long a trip to the moon would take using available technology and explore the travel times of previous missions to our lunar companion. 

Related: Missions to the moon: Past, present and future

How far away is the moon?

To find out how long it takes to get to the moon, we first must know how far away it is. 

The average distance between Earth and the moon is about 238,855 miles (384,400 kilometers), according to NASA. But because the moon does not orbit Earth in a perfect circle, its distance from Earth is not constant. At its closest point to Earth — known as perigee — the moon is about 226,000 miles (363,300 km) away and at its farthest — known as apogee — it's about 251,000 miles (405,500 km) away.

How long would it take to travel to the moon at the speed of light?

Light travels at approximately 186,282 miles per second (299,792 km per second). Therefore, a light shining from the moon would take the following amount of time to reach Earth (or vice versa):  

• Closest point: 1.2 seconds 
• Farthest point: 1.4 seconds 
• Average distance:  1.3 seconds 

How long would it take to travel to the moon on the fastest spacecraft so far?

The fastest spacecraft is NASA's Parker Solar Probe , which keeps breaking its own speed records as it moves closer to the sun. On Nov. 21, 2021, the Parker Solar Probe clocked a top speed of 101 miles (163 kilometers) per second during its 10th close flyby of our star, which translates to a blistering 364,621 mph (586,000 kph). According to a NASA statement , when the Parker Solar Probe comes within 4 million miles (6.2 million kilometers) of the solar surface in December 2024, the spacecraft's speed will top 430,000 miles per hour (692,000 km/h)!

So if you were theoretically able to hitch a ride on the Parker Solar Probe and take it on a detour from its sun-focused mission to travel in a straight line from Earth to the moon, traveling at the speeds the probe reaches during its 10th flyby (101 miles per second), the time it would take you to get to the moon would be:

• Closest point: 37.2 minutes
• Farthest point: 41.4 minutes
• Average distance: 39.4 minutes

How long would it take to drive to the moon?

Let's say you decided to drive to the moon (and that it was actually possible). At an average distance of 238,855 miles (384,400 km) and driving at a constant speed of 60 mph (96 km/h), it would take about 166 days.  

We asked Michael Khan, ESA Senior Mission Analyst some frequently asked questions about travel times to the moon. 

Michael Khan is a Senior Mission Analyst for the European Space Agency (ESA). His work involves studying the orbital mechanics for journeys to planetary bodies including Mars.

And what affects the travel time?

The time it takes to get from one celestial body to another depends largely on the energy that one is willing to expend. Here  "energy" refers  to the effort put in by the launch vehicle and the sum of the manoeuvres of the rocket motors aboard the spacecraft, and the amount of propellant that is used. In space travel, everything boils down to energy. Spaceflight is the clever management of energy.

Some common solutions for transfers to the moon are 1) the Hohmann-like transfer and 2) the Free Return Transfer. The Hohmann Transfer is often referred to as the one that requires the lowest energy, but that is true only if you want the transfer to last only a few days and, in addition, if some constraints on the launch apply. Things get very complicated from there on, so I won't go into details.

The transfer duration for the Hohmann-like transfer is around 5 days. There is some variation in this duration because the moon orbit is eccentric, so its distance from the Earth varies quite a bit with time, and with it, the characteristics of the transfer orbit.

The Free Return transfer is a popular transfer for manned spacecraft. It requires more energy than the Hohmann-like transfer, but it is a lot safer, because its design is such that if the rocket engine fails at the moment you are trying to insert into the orbit around the Moon, the gravity of the Moon  will deflect the orbit exactly such that it returns to the Earth. So even with a defective propulsion system, you can still get the people back safely. The Apollo missions flew on Free Return transfers. They take around 3 days to reach the moon.

Why are journey times a lot slower for spacecraft intending to orbit or land on the target body e.g. Mars compared to those that are just going to fly by?

If you want your spacecraft to enter Mars orbit or to land on the surface, you add a lot of constraints to the design problem. For an orbiter, you have to consider the significant amount of propellant required for orbit insertion, while for a lander, you have to design and build a heat shield that can withstand the loads of atmospheric entry. Usually, this will mean that the arrival velocity of Mars cannot exceed a certain boundary. Adding this constraint to the trajectory optimisation problem will limit the range of solutions you obtain to transfers that are Hohmann-like. This usually leads to an increase in transfer duration.

Calculating travel times to the moon — it's not that straightforward

A problem with the previous calculations is that they measure the distance between Earth and the moon in a straight line and assume the two bodies remain at a constant distance; that is, assuming that when a probe is launched from Earth, the moon would remain the same distance away by the time the probe arrives. 

In reality, however, the distance between Earth and the moon is not constant due to the moon's elliptical orbit, so engineers must calculate the ideal orbits for sending a spacecraft from Earth to the moon. Like throwing a dart at a moving target from a moving vehicle, they must calculate where the moon will be when the spacecraft arrives, not where it is when it leaves Earth. 

Another factor engineers need to take into account when calculating travel times to the moon is whether the mission has the intention of landing on the surface or entering lunar orbit. In these cases, traveling there as fast as possible is not feasible as the spacecraft needs to arrive slowly enough to perform orbit insertion maneuvers. 

More than 140 missions have been launched to the moon, each with a different objective, route and travel time. 

Perhaps the most famous — the crewed Apollo 11 mission — took four days, six hours and 45 minutes to reach the moon. Apollo 10 still holds the record for the fastest speed any humans have ever traveled when it clocked a top speed of while the crew of Apollo 10 traveled 24,791 mph (39,897 kph) relative to Earth as they rocketed back to our planet on May 26, 1969.

The first uncrewed flight test of NASA's Orion spacecraft and space launch system rocket — Artemis 1 — reached the moon on flight day six of its journey and swooped down to just 80 miles (130 km) above the lunar surface to gain a gravitational boost to enter a so-called "distant retrograde orbit." 

Read more about how space navigation works with accurate timekeeping with these resources from NASA . Learn more about how before the days of GPS engineers were able to navigate from Earth to the moon with such precision with this article by Gwendolyn Vines Gettliffe published at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) 'ask an engineer' feature. 

Hatfield, M. (2021). Space Dust Presents Opportunities, Challenges as Parker Solar Probe Speeds Back toward the Sun – Parker Solar Probe. [online] blogs.nasa.gov. Available at: https://blogs.nasa.gov/parkersolarprobe/2021/11/10/space-dust-presents-opportunities-challenges-as-parker-solar-probe-speeds-back-toward-the-sun/ .

NASA (2011). Apollo 8. [online] NASA. Available at: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/missions/apollo8.html .

www.rmg.co.uk. (n.d.). How many people have walked on the Moon? [online] Available at: https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/how-many-people-have-walked-on-moon . 

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Daisy Dobrijevic joined Space.com in February 2022 having previously worked for our sister publication All About Space magazine as a staff writer. Before joining us, Daisy completed an editorial internship with the BBC Sky at Night Magazine and worked at the National Space Centre in Leicester, U.K., where she enjoyed communicating space science to the public. In 2021, Daisy completed a PhD in plant physiology and also holds a Master's in Environmental Science, she is currently based in Nottingham, U.K. Daisy is passionate about all things space, with a penchant for solar activity and space weather. She has a strong interest in astrotourism and loves nothing more than a good northern lights chase! 

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• UFOareAngels The fact that we are still asking this question proves we never went to the moon and are never going back. Reply
• Rathelor Those Parker Solar Probe travel times seems a little too high. Reply
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1969 Moon Landing

By: History.com Editors

Updated: July 17, 2024 | Original: August 23, 2018

On July 20, 1969, American astronauts Neil Armstrong (1930-2012) and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin (1930-) became the first humans ever to land on the moon. About six-and-a-half hours later, Armstrong became the first person to walk on the moon. As he took his first step, Armstrong famously said, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." The Apollo 11 mission occurred eight years after President John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) announced a national goal of landing a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s. Apollo 17, the final manned moon mission, took place in 1972.

JFK's Pledge Leads to Start of Apollo Program

The American effort to send astronauts to the moon had its origins in an appeal President Kennedy made to a special joint session of Congress on May 25, 1961: "I believe this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth." 

At the time, the United States was still trailing the Soviet Union in space developments, and Cold War -era America welcomed Kennedy's bold proposal. In 1966, after five years of work by an international team of scientists and engineers, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) conducted the first unmanned Apollo mission , testing the structural integrity of the proposed launch vehicle and spacecraft combination. 

Then, on January 27, 1967, tragedy struck at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, when a fire broke out during a manned launch-pad test of the Apollo spacecraft and Saturn rocket. Three astronauts were killed in the fire.

President Richard Nixon spoke with Armstrong and Aldrin via a telephone radio transmission shortly after they planted the American flag on the lunar surface. Nixon considered it the "most historic phone call ever made from the White House."

Despite the setback, NASA and its thousands of employees forged ahead, and in October 1968, Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo mission, orbited Earth and successfully tested many of the sophisticated systems needed to conduct a moon journey and landing. 

In December of the same year, Apollo 8 took three astronauts to the far side of the moon and back, and in March 1969 Apollo 9 tested the lunar module for the first time while in Earth orbit. That May, the three astronauts of Apollo 10 took the first complete Apollo spacecraft around the moon in a dry run for the scheduled July landing mission.

Timeline of the 1969 Moon Landing

At 9:32 a.m. EDT on July 16, with the world watching, Apollo 11 took off from Kennedy Space Center with astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins (1930-) aboard. Armstrong, a 38-year-old civilian research pilot, was the commander of the mission.

After traveling 240,000 miles in 76 hours, Apollo 11 entered into a lunar orbit on July 19. The next day, at 1:46 p.m., the lunar module Eagle, manned by Armstrong and Aldrin, separated from the command module, where Collins remained. Two hours later, the Eagle began its descent to the lunar surface, and at 4:17 p.m. the craft touched down on the southwestern edge of the Sea of Tranquility. Armstrong immediately radioed to Mission Control in Houston, Texas, a now-famous message: "The Eagle has landed."

At 10:39 p.m., five hours ahead of the original schedule, Armstrong opened the hatch of the lunar module. As he made his way down the module's ladder, a television camera attached to the craft recorded his progress and beamed the signal back to Earth, where hundreds of millions watched in great anticipation. 

At 10:56 p.m., as Armstrong stepped off the ladder and planted his foot on the moon’s powdery surface, he spoke his famous quote, which he later contended was slightly garbled by his microphone and meant to be "that's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind."

Aldrin joined him on the moon's surface 19 minutes later, and together they took photographs of the terrain, planted a U.S. flag, ran a few simple scientific tests and spoke with President Richard Nixon (1913-94) via Houston. 

By 1:11 a.m. on July 21, both astronauts were back in the lunar module and the hatch was closed. The two men slept that night on the surface of the moon, and at 1:54 p.m. the Eagle began its ascent back to the command module. Among the items left on the surface of the moon was a plaque that read: "Here men from the planet Earth first set foot on the moon—July 1969 A.D.—We came in peace for all mankind."

At 5:35 p.m., Armstrong and Aldrin successfully docked and rejoined Collins, and at 12:56 a.m. on July 22 Apollo 11 began its journey home, safely splashing down in the Pacific Ocean at 12:50 p.m. on July 24.

How Many Times Did the US Land on the Moon?

There would be five more successful lunar landing missions, and one unplanned lunar swing-by. Apollo 13 had to abort its lunar landing due to technical difficulties. The last men to walk on the moon, astronauts Eugene Cernan (1934-2017) and Harrison Schmitt (1935-) of the Apollo 17 mission, left the lunar surface on December 14, 1972. 

The Apollo program was a costly and labor-intensive endeavor, involving an estimated 400,000 engineers, technicians and scientists, and costing $24 billion (close to $100 billion in today's dollars). The expense was justified by Kennedy's 1961 mandate to beat the Soviets to the moon, and after the feat was accomplished, ongoing missions lost their viability.

HISTORY Vault: Moon Landing: The Lost Tapes

On the 50th anniversary of the historic moon landing, this documentary unearths lost tapes of the Apollo 11 astronauts, and explores the dangers and challenges of the mission to the moon.

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Apollo 11 Timeline

On July 20, 1969, a human walked on the Moon for the first time.

Relive the full journey to and from the the Moon with the timeline below.

July 16, 1969 13:32:00 UTC (Universal Coordinated Time) 9:32 am ET (Eastern Time)

Liftoff! The Apollo 11 Spacecraft launched from Cape Kennedy.

Over a million spectators, including Vice President Spiro Agnew and former President Lyndon Johnson, have come to watch the lift off. 

Traveling to the Moon

From launch to landing, Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins were on a three day journey to the Moon. One thing that was not widely publicized during the Apollo program was that the astronauts carried music with them into space. According to most accounts, the astronauts of Gemini and Apollo listened mainly to adult contemporary and country music. 

Neil Armstrong’s musical tastes were a bit more complex than his colleagues. He chose to bring something spacey onboard his space capsule: Theremin music. 

July 20, 1969 17:44 UTC 1:44 pm ET

The lunar module with Armstrong and Aldrin aboard was undocked from the command module. At 101:36 GET, the descent to the surface of the Moon began.

Michael Collins stayed aboard the Command Module Columbia , serving as a communications link and photographing the lunar surface.

More about Collins's journey to the far side of the Moon

July 20, 1969 20:17 UTC 4:17 pm ET

The Eagle Has Landed!

The lunar module touched down on the surface on the Moon.

July 21, 1969 2:51 UTC   July 20, 1969 10:51 pm ET

Neil Armstrong begins his descent from the lunar module and takes humankind’s first steps on the Moon, followed by Buzz Aldrin. 

July 20, 1969 2:56 UTC   July 21, 1969 10:56 pm ET

That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.

On the Moon, the astronauts carried out a planned series of experiments. Approximately two hours and fifteen minutes later, the astronauts prepared to reenter the lunar module. 

About the Experiments

July 21, 1969 17:54 UTC 1:54 pm ET

The ascent from the lunar surface began. At 21:35 UTC (5:35 pm ET) lunar module would rendezvous with the command and service modules, where Michael Collins would welcome back Aldrin and Armstrong. At 23:41 UTC (9:41 pm ET) Lunar Module  Eagle  was jettisoned into lunar orbit. 

What We Left Behind

July 22, 1969 4:55 UTC 11:55 pm ET

Apollo 11 left lunar orbit to return to Earth.

July 24, 1969 4:51 UTC 12:51 pm ET

Splashdown!

The astronauts returned to Earth. In case the Moon had any traces of biological pathogens, the astronauts had to stay in quarantine for 21 days. 

After 21 Days in Quarantine

The United States celebrated the returning heroes in the time-honored tradition reserved for such occasions: parades. The astronauts were lauded at parades across the nation, from New York, to Chicago, to their hometowns, and eventually partook in a world tour.

More About Welcoming the Astronauts Home

The Family That Knocked on Neil Armstrong's Door

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The primary objective of Apollo 11 was to complete a national goal set by President John F. Kennedy on May 25, 1961: perform a crewed lunar landing and return to Earth.

Mission Type

Neil Armstrong

Edwin “buzz” aldrin, michael collins.

First human to set foot on the Moon.

Neil A. Armstrong is probably best known as the commander for the Apollo 11 mission. He joined NASA’s predecessor, the NACA, as an aeronautical research scientist and pilot in 1955. Armstrong was one of nine men chosen of NASA’s second astronaut group in 1962, and flew to space on the Gemini 8 mission in 1966 before being assigned to the Apollo 11 mission.

The second human to set foot on the Moon

An engineer and fighter pilot in the Korean War, Dr. Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin was selected in NASA’s third astronaut class in 1963 and went to space on Gemini XII before becoming the lunar module pilot for Apollo 11.

Collins served as command module pilot on Apollo 11.

Michael Collins was one of the third group of astronauts named by NASA in October 1963. He first flew to space on Gemini X in 1966 before his assignment to the Apollo 11 mission. He logged over 266 hours in space.

Apollo 11 on NASA+

Watch highlights from the Apollo 11 mission including the launch on July 16, 1969, the landing of the lunar module, Neil Armstrong's first steps on the Moon, splashdown, and more.

Apollo 11 Mission Overview

“The Eagle has landed…” Mission Objective The primary objective of Apollo 11 was to complete a national goal set by…

July 20, 1969: One Giant Leap For Mankind

July 1969. It's a little over eight years since the flights of Gagarin and Shepard, followed quickly by President Kennedy's challenge to put a man on the moon before the decade is out.

Apollo 11 HD Videos

Watch Apollo 11 HD videos from the crew's time on the Moon's surface.

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Listen to Apollo 11 audio highlights.

Podcast: Lesser-Known Stories of Apollo 11

Listen to the podcast.

Podcast: The Next First Steps

Who was neil armstrong (grades k-4), who was neil armstrong (grades 5-8), what was the apollo program (grades k-4), what was the apollo program (grades 5-8).

Neil Armstrong was the first person to walk on the moon. He was an astronaut. He flew on two space missions. One was Apollo 11. That mission landed on the moon. He was also an engineer, a pilot and a college professor.

Neil Armstrong was the first human to walk on the surface of the moon. He was an astronaut who flew on two space missions. The first was Gemini 8. The second was Apollo 11, which landed on the moon in 1969. Armstrong was also an engineer, a pilot and a college professor.

Apollo was a NASA program that sent people to the moon. There were 11 Apollo flights. The first Apollo flight was in 1968.

Apollo was the NASA program that resulted in American astronauts’ making a total of 11 spaceflights and walking on the moon.

Apollo 11 Resources

Apollo 11 Flight Journal

The Apollo Flight Journal is a detailed resource relating the parts of the Apollo missions not on the lunar surface.

Apollo 11 Lunar Surface Journal

The Apollo Lunar Surface Journal is a record of the lunar surface operations conducted by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the Moon.

Apollo 11 in Real Time

Relive Apollo 11 from launch through its return to Earth in real-time. This site combines video, photography, mission control audio, commentary, and astromaterial samples from the mission for an immersive experience.

Apollo 11 Footsteps

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera, or LROC, captured high resolution black and white images and moderate resolution multi-spectral images of the lunar surface. These images are used to recreate the Apollo 11 surface traverse on July 20, 1969.

Apollo by the Numbers

An extensive statistical reference with details for each of the Apollo missions.

More Apollo Resources

Find materials for students and educators, 3D printing files, details on the samples collected from the Moon, and more!

Apollo 11 Articles

Read about the details of this landmark mission to the Moon.

In September 1969, celebrations continued to mark the successful first human Moon landing two months earlier, and NASA prepared for the next visit to the Moon. The hometowns of the Apollo 11 astronauts held parades in their honor, the postal…

On Aug. 10, 1969, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil A. Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin completed their 21-day quarantine after returning from the Moon. The historic nature of their mission resulted in a very busy postflight schedule for…

“Houston, Tranquility Base here, the Eagle has landed.” “That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.” “Magnificent desolation.” Three phrases that recall humanity’s first landing on and exploration of the lunar surface. In July 1969, Apollo…

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