Page 49 - The Appollo Story

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Apollo 11 (AS-506) The Eagle Has Landed
After rendezvous with Columbia, Eagle's ascent stage was jettisoned into lunar orbit on July 21, 1969 at
23:41 UTC. Just before the Apollo 12 flight, it was noted that Eagle was still likely to be orbiting the
Moon. Later NASA reports mentioned that Eagle's orbit had decayed, resulting in it impacting in an
"uncertain location" on the lunar surface. The location is uncertain because the Eagle ascent stage was not
tracked after it was jettisoned, and the lunar gravity field is sufficiently non-uniform to make the orbit of
the spacecraft unpredictable after a short time. NASA estimated that the orbit had decayed within months
and would have impacted on the Moon.

cApollo-11

LEM-CM RENDEZVOUS

Astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin rendezvous
and docking wil:h the Command Module 5:35
P.M. ·and transferred in connecting l:unnel in the CM Columbia, 75 miles above the Moon.

Did You Know?
The toughest moonwalk task? Planting the flag. NASA's studies suggested that the lunar soil was soft,
but Armstrong and Aldrin found the surface to be a thin wisp of dust over hard rock. They managed to
drive the flagpole a few inches into the ground and film it for broadcast, and then took care not to acci-
dentally knock it over.