"Lunar Module at Tranquility Base" by NASA
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
- Apollo 11 - Technical Air-to-Ground Voice Transcription (web page)
- Apollo 11 - Technical Air-to-Ground Voice Transcription (original PDF)
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
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.
Press
- Apollo 11 conversations on the way to the moon, March 21, 2018, FlowingData
- Every Conversation That Happened During the First Moon Landing, Visualized, April 9, 2018, Mental Floss
- Best of the visualisation web... March 2018, June 1, 2018, Visualising Data
- Showcase, Longlist, September 22, 2018, Information is Beautiful Awards 2018
Published March 18, 2018
