Latest News About When Did Apollo 11 Return To Earth

Updated 2026-05-05 19:02

Apollo 11 safely returned to Earth on July 24, 1969, after completing an eight-day mission that began with lunar surface activities on July 20th. The crew splashdown occurred in the Pacific Ocean, about 13 miles from the recovery ship USS Hornet, and they then entered a 21-day quarantine period.

If you’d like, I can pull a concise timeline of key events from launch to splashdown with exact UTC times.[1][7]

Sources

Apollo 11 Return to Earth | World Air Sports Federation

24th July 1969: The day the Apollo 11 crew made it safely back to Earth and fulfilled the goal set by US President John F. Kennedy on May 25, 1961, "to perform a crewed lunar landing and return to Earth." Following Lunar Module Eagle's successful rendez-vous with the Michael Collins who had been orbiting the moon in Columbia, the crew made a television broadcast to Earth, thanking those who had worked on the project and reassuring the world waiting below that they had complete faith in their...

fai.org

Apollo 11 Astronauts Safely Return to Earth | News

Command module Columbia, containing the Apollo 11 crew, has safely returned the Earth on Thursday 24 July at 1751 BST, successfully completing the first manned Moon landing mission

www.flightglobal.com

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 this timeline.

airandspace.si.edu