Talk:Apollo 11

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Apollo 11 article.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the subject of the article.

Add new text under old text.
New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Learn to edit; get help.

Start a new topic

Article policies

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

Archives: 1, 2, 3, 4: 3 months

view · edit

Frequently asked questions

To view an explanation to the answer, click the [show] link to the right of the question.

Q1: Isn't this article incorrect where it says Armstrong and Aldrin "stayed a total of about 21½ hours on the lunar surface"? (No.)

They landed their spacecraft on July 20, 1969, at 20:18 UTC, and took off again the next day at 17:54 UTC. Therefore, they spent a total of 21 hours and 36 minutes on the surface, most of this time inside the spacecraft. Their moonwalk outside the spacecraft lasted just over 2 hours and 31 minutes. Both facts are recorded accurately in the summary.

Q2: The date for the Moon walk is wrong; it should be July 20. (No; it was July 21, UTC)

The dates of the Apollo 11 Moon landing and Moon walk are often reported as July 20, 1969, using time zones of the United States. However, the Moon is not within any Earth-bound time zone, and to avoid regional bias, the WP:WikiProject Spaceflight community has established a consensus (discussed here) to use UTC. The date and times of the landing and EVA were July 20, 1969, 20:18 UTC and July 21 at 02:56:15 UTC, respectively. Therefore, we use July 20 as the date of the landing and July 21 as the date of the EVA. Please don't "correct" the EVA date to July 20.

This article is written in American English, which has its own spelling conventions (center, color, defense, realize, traveled) and some terms may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus.

Apollo 11 is a featured article; it (or a previous version of it) has been identified as one of the best articles produced by the Wikipedia community. Even so, if you can update or improve it, please do so.

This article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page as Today's featured article on July 20, 2020.

Article milestones
Date	Process	Result
September 26, 2006	Good article nominee	Listed
June 15, 2008	Good article reassessment	Kept
December 9, 2018	WikiProject A-class review	Approved
January 7, 2019	Good topic candidate	Not promoted
January 13, 2019	Featured article candidate	Promoted
Facts from this article were featured on Wikipedia's Main Page in the "On this day..." column on July 20, 2004, July 20, 2005, July 20, 2006, July 20, 2007, July 20, 2008, July 20, 2009, July 20, 2010, July 20, 2012, July 20, 2013, and July 20, 2024.
Current status: Featured article

Smithsonian Institution Mid‑importance

	This article is within the scope of Smithsonian Institution, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of the Smithsonian Institution and related articles on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Smithsonian InstitutionWikipedia:GLAM/Smithsonian InstitutionTemplate:WikiProject Smithsonian InstitutionSmithsonian Institution-related
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the importance scale.

Military history: Aviation / Maritime / National / North America / United States / Cold War

This article is within the scope of the Military history WikiProject. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks. To use this banner, please see the full instructions.Military historyWikipedia:WikiProject Military historyTemplate:WikiProject Military historymilitary history

Associated task forces:
/
	Military aviation task force
	Maritime warfare task force
	National militaries task force
	North American military history task force
	United States military history task force
	Cold War task force (c. 1945 – c. 1989)

Additional information:
/
	This article has passed an A-Class review.

Spaceflight Top‑importance

	Spaceflight portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Spaceflight, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of spaceflight on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.SpaceflightWikipedia:WikiProject SpaceflightTemplate:WikiProject Spaceflightspaceflight
Top	This article has been rated as Top-importance on the project's importance scale.

Astronomy: Moon / Solar System Low‑importance

	Astronomy portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Astronomy, which collaborates on articles related to Astronomy on Wikipedia.AstronomyWikipedia:WikiProject AstronomyTemplate:WikiProject AstronomyAstronomy
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.
	This article is supported by Moon task force (assessed as Top-importance).
	This article is supported by Solar System task force (assessed as Top-importance).

National Archives (inactive)

This article is within the scope of National Archives project, a project which is currently considered to be inactive.National ArchivesWikipedia:WikiProject National ArchivesTemplate:WikiProject National ArchivesNational Archives

United States: Military history Top‑importance

	United States portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject United States, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of topics relating to the United States of America on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the ongoing discussions. Template Usage Articles Requested! Become a Member Project Talk Alerts United StatesWikipedia:WikiProject United StatesTemplate:WikiProject United StatesUnited States
Top	This article has been rated as Top-importance on the project's importance scale.
	This article is supported by WikiProject Military history - U.S. military history task force.

Spoken Wikipedia

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Spoken Wikipedia, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of articles that are spoken on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Spoken WikipediaWikipedia:WikiProject Spoken WikipediaTemplate:WikiProject Spoken WikipediaSpoken Wikipedia

First man on the Moon

wouldn't the first man to step on the moon be whoever was holding the camera to videotape it? Tnt50 (talk) 19:35, 30 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

NASA had the foresight to mount a camera on the lander. Acroterion (talk) 19:43, 30 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

"At 02:51 Armstrong began his descent to the lunar surface. The remote control unit on his chest kept him from seeing his feet. Climbing down the nine-rung ladder, Armstrong pulled a D-ring to deploy the modular equipment stowage assembly (MESA) folded against Eagle's side and activate the TV camera." Martinevans123 (talk) 19:43, 30 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The Apollo TV camera was mounted on the Apollo Lunar Module (LM) descent stage's modularized equipment stowage assembly (MESA). Positioning the camera in the MESA made it possible to telecast the astronauts' first steps as they climbed down the LM's ladder at the start of a mission's first moonwalk/EVA. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 20:12, 30 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Semi-protected edit request on 4 June 2025

This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

I suggest including a reference to the documentary film, "The Space Movie", within the section "Films & documentaries". It was produced in 1979 by Tony Palmer at the request of NASA, to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing, with music of Mike Oldfield.

The film is relevant in popular culture (both cinematically and musically). See the following link: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Space_Movie

Not done, yet. Yes, it's The Space Movie (1980). Maybe here, but probably belongs at Apollo 11 in popular culture first. Martinevans123 (talk) 18:48, 4 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

"The Moon Landing" listed at Redirects for discussion

The redirect The Moon Landing has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2025 June 14 § The Moon Landing until a consensus is reached. मल्ल (talk) 15:28, 14 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Featured picture scheduled for POTD

Hello! This is to let editors know that File:Earth, Moon and Lunar Module, AS11-44-6643 c.jpg, a featured picture used in this article, has been selected as the English Wikipedia's picture of the day (POTD) for July 20, 2026. A preview of the POTD is displayed below and can be edited at Template:POTD/2026-07-20. For the greater benefit of readers, any potential improvements or maintenance that could benefit the quality of this article should be done before its scheduled appearance on the Main Page. If you have any concerns, please place a message at Wikipedia talk:Picture of the day. Thank you! — Amakuru (talk) 12:06, 12 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins, aboard Command Module Columbia, photographed Lunar Module Eagle as it returned from the lunar surface on July 20, 1969. Eagle, piloted by astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, the first Earthlings to walk on the Moon, is shown aligned with their distant home planet.

Photograph credit: Michael Collins

Recently featured:

The photo credit would go to Michael Collins, not the uploader. Thanks for selecting this historic image. Randy Kryn (talk) 13:23, 12 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Suggested reordering in "Mission" section: "Landing" subsection

This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

Two changes:
1. Remove "Now 107 feet (33 m) above the surface, Armstrong knew their propellant supply was dwindling and was determined to land at the first possible landing site.[125]" from first paragraph of Mission section, Landing subsection.
2. On the very next paragraph, change "He cleared the crater and found another patch of level ground." to "Now 107 feet (33 m) above the surface, Armstrong knew their propellant supply was dwindling and was determined to land at the first possible landing site. He cleared the crater and found another patch of level ground."

Reason: This moves the sentence to a more logical position. As currently written, "107 feet above the surface" appears before "250 feet above the surface" in the next paragraph, implying the craft rose in altitude. Moving the sentence restores the correct descending order. OldInternet (talk) 03:18, 14 April 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Done Hawkeye7 (discuss) 04:00, 14 April 2026 (UTC)[reply]