02 · Moon journey
The Moon
Three days away, and no one has walked there since 1972.
The Moon is the only other world people have walked on. Twelve of them left footprints there that no wind will ever blow away. The sky is black at noon, the Earth hangs almost motionless overhead, and the silence is total.
Fly there in the journeyAt a glance
- Average distance
- 384,400 km
- Travel time
- About 3 days
- Gravity
- 0.17 g
- Day and night
- 29.5 Earth days
- Surface temperature
- −173 to 127 °C
Earthrise.
On 24 December 1968 the crew of Apollo 8 came around the far side of the Moon and watched the Earth rise over the lunar horizon. The photograph they took became one of the most famous images ever made.
Flight plan
- Day 0
Trans-lunar injection
One long engine burn breaks you out of Earth orbit and onto a path that meets the Moon three days later.
- Days 1–3
The long coast
The Earth shrinks from a horizon to a marble you can hide behind your thumb.
- Day 3
The far side
You slip behind the Moon and the radio falls silent. For a while, no one on Earth can reach you.
- Day 4
Landing
The descent engine throws up dust that flies in perfect arcs — there is no air to slow it down. Touchdown, at one sixth of Earth’s gravity.
- Days 4–10
On the surface
Bound across the regolith, visit the dark craters near the south pole, and look up at a planet that never sets.
- Return
Home at 40,000 km/h
Three days back, then the fastest re-entry people have ever ridden — about 11 kilometers every second.
What you will see
Earth stands still
The Moon always turns the same face toward us, so from the near side the Earth barely moves across the sky. It only spins, and waxes and wanes.
Black sky at noon
With no atmosphere to scatter sunlight, the sky stays black even under a blazing sun.
Ice in the dark
Some craters near the south pole never see sunlight. They hold water ice — tomorrow’s drinking water and rocket fuel.
Where we are today
Twelve people walked on the Moon between 1969 and 1972. NASA’s Artemis program is working to bring people back — this time near the south pole, and for longer.
Fly there in the journey