Lunar Conversations

A timeline of the conversations between Earth and the spacecraft of the Apollo 11 mission from liftoff to splashdown.

During the historic mission to the moon and back, some of the most famous words ever said were transmitted between the Apollo 11 spacecraft and Earth. Between those icons moments was a great deal of chatter—mostly about technical matters but also about how the Earth looked from space, bounding around on the moon, and even sandwiches.

Below is an interactive timeline of every transmission recorded during the mission with some highlights of the most memorable moments. How it was made »

  • Earth
  • Spacecraft

Fewer words spoken More words spoken.
Hover/tap to see what was said.

Communicators

Spacecraft

  • CDR: Commander, Neil A. Armstrong
  • CMP: Command module pilot, Michael Collins
  • LMP: Lunar module pilot, Edwin E. (Buzz) Aldrin, Jr.
  • SC: Unidentifiable crew member on spacecraft
  • MS: Multiple simultaneous speakers

Mission control center

  • CC: Capsule commander (CAP COM)
  • CT: Communications technician

Other

  • HORNET: USS Hornet (recovery)
  • MSFN: Manned space flight network
  • SWIM 1: Swim team (recovery)
  • UNKNOWN: Sound from unidentifiable origin
Transcription notes

A series of three dots (...) is used to designate those portions of the communications that could not be transcribed because of garbling.

One dash (-) is used to indicate a speaker's pause or a self-interruption and subsequent completion of a thought.

Two dashes (- -) are used to indicate an interruption by another speaker or a point at which a recording was terminated abruptly.

Sources
Disclaimer

This project contains material from NASA without copyright, the use of which has not been endorsed by NASA. I am making such material available as part of a curiosity for exploring the Apollo 11 transcript. I do not claim ownership of the transcript.


Posters

Lunar Conversations

Lunar Conversations

A full sized poster of the chart above.

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Words of Apollo 11

Words of Apollo 11

A fun visual of every word spoken during the Apollo 11 mission between earth and the spacecraft traveling to the moon and back.

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