JULY 21, 1969
12:54 a.m.- After checking with Mission Control to make sure all chores havebeen completed, experiments set up, and photographs taken, Aldrin starts backup the ladder to re-enter the LM.
1:09 a.m.- Armstrong joins Aldrin in the landing craft.
1:11 a.m.- The hatch is closed. The astronauts begin removing the portablelife support systems on which they have depended for two hours and 47 minutes.
4:25 a.m.- Astronauts are told to go to sleep, after attending to finalhousekeeping details and answering a number of questions concerning the geologyof the Moon.
9:44 a.m.- Shortly after arousing Collins, still circling the Moon in theCommand/Service Module, Mission Control observes: "Not since Adam has anyhuman known such solitude as Mike Collins is experiencing during this 47minutes of each lunar revolution when he's behind the Moon with no one to talkto except his tape recorder aboard Columbia."
11:13 a.m.- The astronauts in Eagle are aroused. Aldrin announces:"Neil has rigged himself a really good hammock . . . and he's been Iyingon the hatch and engine cover, and I curled up on the floor."
12:42 p.m.- Answering a question raised before they went to sleep, Aldrinreports: "We are in a boulder field where boulders range generally up totwo feet, with a few larger than that... Some of the boulders are Iying on topof the surface, some are partially exposed, and some are just barelyexposed."
1:54 p.m.- Ascent engine is started and LM, using descent stage as a launchpad, begins rising and reaches a vertical speed of 80 feet per second at 1,000feet altitude.
The astronauts take with them in the ascent stage the soil samples, thealuminum foil with the "solar wind" particles it has collected, thefilm used in taking photographs with still and motion picture cameras, theflags and other mementos to be returned to Earth. Behind they leave a number ofitems, reducing the weight of the ship from 15,897 pounds as it landed on theMoon to 10,821 pounds.
The largest item left behind is the descent stage, that part of the landingcraft with the plaque on one of its spidery legs. Others include the TV camera,two still cameras, tools used in collecting samples, portable life supportsystems, lunar boots, American flag, rod support for the "solar wind"experiment instrument, laser beam reflector, seismic detector, and a gnomon, adevice to verify colors of objects photographed.
5:35 p.m.- Eagle redocks with Columbia while circling on the back side ofthe Moon.
7:42 p.m.- The landing craft is jettisoned.
Source: NASA history office
advertisement
