50th Anniversary of Apollo 11

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11, the National Archives featured exclusive documents from the Apollo 11 mission to the moon. From transcripts to flight plans, the museum will highlight some of the most important pieces of the monumental occasion. Documents were on display in the July of 2019 in the Rotunda Galleries.

Apollo 11 Flight Profile: Apollo 11 launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida, on July 16, 1969. For the next eight days the world closely tracked the mission’s progress as the crew flew to the Moon and back to Earth. This flight profile details the flight plan for the entire mission.

Apollo 11 Flight Plan: This flight plan for hour 102 of the Apollo 11 mission gives a timeline of tasks to be performed by the crew—Mike Collins (CMP), Neil Armstrong (CDR), and Buzz Aldrin (LMP)—and Mission Control in Houston (MCC-H). While Collins orbited the Moon in the Command Service Module (CSM) Columbia, Armstrong and Aldrin descended to the Moon’s surface in the Lunar Module (LM) Eagle. According to the plan, touchdown was expected at 102:47:11, but Armstrong’s voice crackled over the radio “the Eagle has landed” a minute and a half ahead of schedule.

Apollo 11 Flight Radio Transcript: Astronaut Neil Armstrong uttered the historic phrase “one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind” as he took his first steps onto the Moon’s surface on July 20, 1969. This transcript of the Apollo 11 radio transmission to Mission Control documents the astronaut’s first impressions of the lunar surface but failed to capture Armstrong’s exact words. Whether the “a” before “man” in Armstrong’s statement was dropped due to an interruption in the transmission or because he misspoke remains a matter of debate.

Data Card for the Lunar Module: This “DATA CARD KIT” is a checklist of the EVA (extra vehicular activities) to be conducted by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin during their moon walk, including taking photographs, inspecting equipment, and collecting samples from the lunar surface. The Velcro squares on the card enabled the astronauts to attach the checklist to Velcro patches on their spacesuits and inside the Lunar Module.

Past Featured Records

Title IX
An Act of June 23, 1972, Public Law 92-318, 86 STAT 235, to Amend the Higher Education Act of 1965, the Vocational Educational Act of 1963, the General Education Provisions Act (Creating a National Foundation for Postsecondary Education and a National Institute of Education), the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, Public Law 874, Eighty-First Congress, and Related Acts, ...
Court-Martial record of Lieutenant Frederick Gotthold Enslin, March 10, 1778.
On March 10, 1778, Lieutenant Frederick Gotthold Enslin became the first U.S. soldier court-martialed for “attempting to commit sodomy” with another soldier. His sentence was to be literally drummed out of the Continental Army by its regiments’ fifes and drums. Enslin was told “never to return.” More than 230 years after Enslin’s court martial, gay men, lesbians, ...
Indictment for illegal voting, 1872
Susan B. Anthony devoted more than fifty years of her life to the cause of woman suffrage. After casting her ballot in the 1872 Presidential election in her hometown of Rochester, New York, she was arrested, indicted, tried, and convicted for voting illegally. At her two-day trial in June 1873, which she later described as "the greatest judicial outrage ...
Sylvia Mendez and the Struggle for Mexican American Civil Rights
Friday, September 13, 2024 - Wednesday, October 2, 2024East Rotunda Gallery Gonzalo and Felicitas Mendez moved to Orange County, California, with their children Sylvia, Gonzalo Jr., and Jerome in 1944. When they tried to enroll in the majority-white school near their home, they were instead sent to a segregated school for Hispanic students. The Mendez family filed a ...
A President Resigns – 50 Years Later
Thursday, August 1, 2024 - Thursday, September 12, 2024East Rotunda Gallery “I have never been a quitter. To leave office before my term is completed is abhorrent to every instinct in my body. But as President, I must put the interest of America first.” –Richard M. Nixon, August 8, 1974 During the night of June 17, 1972, five ...