Apollo — fly the whole mission
A free Apollo simulator in your browser: ride the Saturn V off Launch Complex 39A, coast to the Moon, land the lunar module on real NASA elevation data, walk the surface, fly back up to orbit, dock with the command module and bring the crew home to a Pacific splashdown — with the real Apollo 11 radio loops in your ears. Or fly Apollo 13: the tank stir, the bang, the lunar-module lifeboat and the slingshot around the Moon for home.
Your pick sets the landing site, the real launch date and time (and with it the sun), and the historic dates shown below. Every phase can be started directly. Apollo 13 is the exception: it flies the historic accident — there is no landing.
Launch — ride the Saturn V off Pad 39A
Historic date — Apollo 11: July 16, 1969 · 13:32 UTC
Five F-1 engines light under you on your mission's real launch date and time — Apollo 17 goes at night. Countdown with the original go/no-go poll from the firing room, tower clear, max-Q, two stagings and the climb into Earth parking orbit. Coast around the planet as long as you like, then fly trans-lunar injection for real: relight the S-IVB, hold the burn to 3150 m/s and watch Earth fall away beneath you as you climb out toward the crescent Moon — or move the pad and launch a Saturn V from your hometown.
- drag / wheel free camera from liftoff — zoom out to the whole Earth
- Space hold the TLI burn — cut the S-IVB off at 3150 m/s
- V video mode — clean cinematic capture
Outbound — docking & three days to the Moon
Historic dates — Apollo 11: TLI July 16 → lunar orbit July 19, 1969
Across the trans-lunar bridge: transposition & docking — turn the command module around and pull the lunar module out of the spent third stage — then the long coast, a midcourse correction and the lunar-orbit-insertion burn. Fly the full mission and you arrive here fresh from the injection burn; played on its own, the bridge opens with that burn instead. Three precision moments decide how steady your descent will start: fly them clean and the lander begins with less drift and more fuel margin.
- Space burn · cut off inside the tolerance band
- ←↑↓→ steer the docking approach · Shift brake
- P let the flight computer fly it
Cruise — the long coast under the stars
Historic dates — Apollo 11: TLI July 16 → lunar orbit July 19, 1969
Drop straight into the most beautiful stretch of the mission: docking and the midcourse correction are behind you, and the joined command module and lander drift silently toward the Moon. Circle the camera around the sunlit ships, watch the Earth shrink to a blue marble among the stars, and wind time forward until the Moon fills the window — then fly the lunar-orbit-insertion burn yourself.
- drag / wheel circle the camera around the docked ships
- , . time warp slower / faster (or click the TIME chip)
- Space fly the lunar-orbit-insertion burn on arrival
Stay in orbit as Michael Collins
When Eagle undocks, remain aboard Columbia and fly the mission from the command module pilot's seat. Keep the lunar orbit healthy, acquire Eagle in the optical reticle, follow the landing over the real radio timeline, prepare the rendezvous, then bring the returning ascent stage alongside and dock.
- drag / wheel track Eagle and record the optical mark
- ←↑↓→ trim Columbia's orbit and fly the rendezvous
- , . compress the surface timeline — flight physics stays real-time
The third seat is now a playable job: three optional CMP flight-plan duties feed into a hands-on, CSM-side rendezvous and docking.
"Houston, we've had a problem"
Historic date — Apollo 13: April 14, 1970 · 03:08 UTC — 55:55 into the flight
Fifty-six hours out, a routine cryo-tank stir tears open the service module — with the real radio calls as they happened. Power down the dying Odyssey, move into the lunar module Aquarius and turn a two-man lander into a three-man lifeboat. Power, water and CO2 scrubbing become the clock, and this leg CAN be lost. There is no landing to fly — from here on, the mission is getting home.
- Space throw the stir switch · hold to power down
- , . time warp between events
- drag / wheel free camera around the wounded ship
Free return — the slingshot home
Historic dates — Apollo 13: Burns April 14–15, 1970 — farthest crew from Earth ever
Aquarius's descent engine, built to land on the Moon, now steers the whole stack. Burn onto the free-return trajectory, whip around the far side, then fly PC+2 — the big burn home — and the final corridor trim, all on a real integrated trajectory. Miss the burns beyond the computer's reach, run out of power or breathable air, and the crew doesn't come home. Then Odyssey wakes up, the shattered service module tumbles past the windows, and the longest reentry blackout begins.
- Space hold the DPS burns — cut at the target ΔV
- ←↑↓→ final corridor trim on the reticle
- , . time warp between events
Descent — land on the Moon
Historic date — Apollo 11: July 20, 1969 · 20:17 UTC
Fly the real Apollo powered descent: the guidance computer lights the engine 450 km out at orbital speed and flies the actual P63 braking and P64 pitch-over — you redesignate the landing point, answer the 1202 alarm, and take the ship at low gate for the landing, like Armstrong. All six Apollo landing sites are rendered from LROC stereo terrain at about 2.6 m per pixel, so the craters you dodge are the craters that are really there. Prefer stick-and-throttle all the way down? The arcade drop from 15 km is one click away and scored on the leaderboard.
- Space descent engine · hold Shift/Ctrl for 75/50%
- ←↑↓→ lateral thrusters — the NAV dial shows zone (green), drift (red), thrust (amber)
- P autopilot demo — lands safely but scores 0
Moonwalk — step outside
Historic dates — Apollo 11: First step July 21, 1969 · 02:56 UTC — one moonwalk, 2 h 32 m
After a soft landing at an Apollo site, open the hatch and take a walk. “That's one small step…” plays from the real tape as your boots hit the regolith. Plant your steps around the lander, line up the American flag, frame Earth over the horizon and take a photo — a relaxed sandbox between landing and liftoff.
- W A S D / arrows walk · CAM pad orbits the camera
- Photo saves a clean PNG of the scene
- Back to lander returns to the mission
Ascent — back to lunar orbit
Historic date — Apollo 11: July 21, 1969 · 17:54 UTC
Light the ascent stage — the descent stage stays behind as your launch pad — and fly the gravity turn: pitch over to trade climb for horizontal speed and hit the 12–15 km insertion corridor at orbital velocity with a near-zero climb rate. The APO readout predicts your apoapsis; manage it with pitch, because once gravity fades you cannot thrust downward.
- Space throttle · ← → pitch the gravity turn
- ↑ ↓ cross-range trim
- Insertion: 12–15 km · ≥ 1550 m/s · climb rate ≈ 0
Rendezvous & docking
Historic date — Apollo 11: July 21, 1969 · 21:35 UTC
Close the last 300 m to the command module waiting in lunar orbit. The NAV dial becomes your port-alignment radar and the overhead window shows the approach through the COAS reticle: center the crosshair, null your drift, and make contact inside the 2 m capture cone — below capture speed, or you bounce off.
- ←↑↓→ steer — screen-relative to the approach
- Space close in · Shift retro-brake
- Watch RNG (range) and CLS (closing rate) in the HUD
Coasting in lunar orbit
Historic date — Apollo 11: July 21, 1969 · 21:35 UTC
The lander is back, the crew is aboard, and for a few quiet revolutions there is nothing left to do but look: Columbia gleaming over the craters, the spent ascent stage drifting slowly astern, the terminator creeping across the maria below. No score, no clock — stay as long as you like. The burn for home can wait.
- V cinema mode — clean screen, drag to circle the ship
- ←↑↓→ nudge the thrusters — or leave her be and just watch
- The floating Return to Earth button flies you into the trans-Earth burn whenever you're ready
Reentry — splashdown in the Pacific
Historic date — Apollo 11: July 24, 1969 · 16:50 UTC
Jettison the lunar module, burn for home and hit the atmosphere at 11 km/s in a corridor just two degrees tall: too shallow and you skip back into space, too steep and the G-load crushes the crew. Fly the entry with bank angle alone through the plasma blackout, then drogues, mains, and a splashdown as close to the recovery ship as you can manage.
- ← → roll the bank angle — lift up = shallower, lift down = steeper
- Space chutes — drogues below 7.3 km, mains below 3.2 km
- Keep the ENTRY CORRIDOR needle in the green band
Apollo mission dates at a glance
The seven missions of this simulator with the historic dates of each phase (all times UTC). Apollo 13 never landed — you fly the accident and the ride home instead.
| Mission | Launch | Moon landing | Moonwalks | Liftoff from Moon | Docking | Splashdown |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apollo 11 | July 16, 1969 · 13:32 UTC | July 20, 1969 · 20:17 UTC | First step July 21, 1969 · 02:56 UTC — one moonwalk, 2 h 32 m | July 21, 1969 · 17:54 UTC | July 21, 1969 · 21:35 UTC | July 24, 1969 · 16:50 UTC |
| Apollo 12 | November 14, 1969 · 16:22 UTC | November 19, 1969 · 06:54 UTC | November 19–20, 1969 — two moonwalks, 7 h 45 m | November 20, 1969 · 14:25 UTC | November 20, 1969 · 17:58 UTC | November 24, 1969 · 20:58 UTC |
| Apollo 13 | April 11, 1970 · 19:13 UTC | No landing — aborted after the explosion | None — the LM became the crew's lifeboat | — | — | April 17, 1970 · 18:07 UTC |
| Apollo 14 | January 31, 1971 · 21:03 UTC | February 5, 1971 · 09:18 UTC | February 5–6, 1971 — two moonwalks, 9 h 23 m | February 6, 1971 · 18:48 UTC | February 6, 1971 · 20:36 UTC | February 9, 1971 · 21:05 UTC |
| Apollo 15 | July 26, 1971 · 13:34 UTC | July 30, 1971 · 22:16 UTC | July 31 – August 2, 1971 — three moonwalks, 18 h 33 m | August 2, 1971 · 17:11 UTC | August 2, 1971 · 19:10 UTC | August 7, 1971 · 20:45 UTC |
| Apollo 16 | April 16, 1972 · 17:54 UTC | April 21, 1972 · 02:23 UTC | April 21–23, 1972 — three moonwalks, 20 h 14 m | April 24, 1972 · 01:25 UTC | April 24, 1972 · 03:35 UTC | April 27, 1972 · 19:45 UTC |
| Apollo 17 | December 7, 1972 · 05:33 UTC — the only night launch | December 11, 1972 · 19:55 UTC | December 11–13, 1972 — three moonwalks, 22 h 4 m | December 14, 1972 · 22:54 UTC — the last liftoff from the Moon | December 15, 1972 · 01:10 UTC | December 19, 1972 · 19:25 UTC |
