40 Years after Apollo 11: July 19

Originally written on July 19th, 2009…

Apollo 11 has arrived in lunar orbit. As they swung around the far side of the Moon, they fired the service module rocket to slow them down enough to be captured by the Moon’s gravity.

Now, Neil and Buzz have floated over to the lunar module and separated from the command/service modules. (Here the LM is upside down, rotating so Mike in the command module can make sure everything looks okay.)

From the lunar module, Neil and Buzz can look back at Mike, who is now the most alone person in the universe.