The launch comes after a 28-hour countdown. It takes place in highlysuitable weather, with winds 10 knots from the southeast, temperature in themid-80's, and clouds at 15,000 feet.

At 4:15 a.m., the astronauts had been awakened. After a breakfast of orangejuice, steak, scrambled eggs, toast and coffee, they began suiting up at 5:35a.m. At 6:27 a.m., they left in an air-conditioned van for the launch pad eightmiles away. At 6:54 a.m., Armstrong entered the command module and tookposition on the left. He was followed five minutes later by Collins, on theright, and Aldrin, in the center.

Two minor problems that developed in the ground equipment, a leaky valve anda faulty signal light were corrected while the astronauts were en route to thepad.

The Apollo access arm retracted at 9:27 a.m. Eight and nine-tenths secondsbefore launch time, the first of the Saturn V's first stage engines ignited.From the viewing stands, the flame appeared as a bright yellow-orange star onthe horizon. Soon the other four engines fired and the light of the firstengine became a huge fireball that lit the scene like a rising Sun. No soundwas heard. For two seconds the vehicle built up thrust. The hold down clampswere released and the space vehicle began moving slowly upward from the pad, asnear 9:32 a.m. as human effort could make it.

As it reached the top of the service tower, the hard-edged clatteringthunder of the firing engines [3] rolled over the scrubby Florida landscape andengulfed the viewers like a tidal wave. They witnessed the beginning of thefifth manned Apollo flight, the third to the vicinity of the Moon and the firstlunar landing mission.

From Launch Control the last words were: "Good luck and Godspeed."Commander Armstrong replied, "Thank you very much. We know this will be agood flight."

9:35 a.m.- The spacecraft is 37 nautical miles high, downrange 61 nauticalmiles and traveling at 9,300 feet per second or about 6,340 miles per hour.Armstrong confirms the engine skirt and launch escape tower separations.

9:44 a.m.- With the three Saturn stages fired one after another and thefirst two jettisoned, Apollo 11 enters a 103 nautical mile-high Earth orbit,during which the vehicle is carefully checked by the astronauts and by theground control crew.

12:22 p.m.- Another firing of the third-stage engine, still attached to thecommand service module, boosts Apollo 11out of orbit midway in its second triparound the Earth and onto its lunar trajectory at an initial speed of 24,200miles an hour.

12:49 p.m.- While the spacecraft moves farther and farther from Earth, thelunar landing craft, code-named Eagle is unpacked from its compartment atop thelaunch rockets. The astronauts first fire some explosive bolts. These cause themain spaceship, given the name Columbia, to separate from the adapter and blowapart the four panels that make up its sides, exposing the lunar module (LM)tucked inside. They stop the spacecraft about 100 feet away -- 34 feet fartherthan they were supposed to-turn the ship around, facing the landing craft, anddock head-to-head

with it. The docking complete, the LM's connections with the adapter areblown loose and the mated command/service and lunar modules separate from therocket and continue alone toward the Moon.

2:38 p.m.- By dumping its leftover fuel the third rocket stage is fired intoa long solar orbit to remove it from Apollo 11's path.

2:43 p.m.- With the flight on schedule and proceeding satisfactorily, thefirst scheduled midcourse correction is considered unnecessary.

2:54 p.m.- The spacecraft is reported 22,000 nautical miles from Earth andtraveling at 12,914 feet per second.

Crew members keep busy with housekeeping duties.

8:52 p.m.- Mission Control at Houston, Texas, says good night to the crew asthey prepare to go to sleep two hours early.

10:59 p.m.- Because of the pull of Earth's gravity, the spacecraft hasslowed to 7,279 feet per second at a distance of 63,880 nautical miles fromEarth.

Source: NASA History Office