Astronomical Map: Launch Date Target of Opportunity Flight Chart SKB 32100097-301

18 July 1969 Launch Date Target of Opportunity Flight Chart SKB 32100097-301, 2nd Edition 5 July 1969, produced for NASA, USA, c. 1969.

The United States’ National Aeronautical and Space Administration’s (NASA) Apollo programme for landing astronauts on the Moon generated millions of associated mission documents. Some were made available to press and media. These included charts projecting the ground track of the spacecraft, as it orbited the Moon, over a detailed photographic montage of surface features. The photographs had been generated from the unmanned Lunar Orbiter missions of 1966-67. The charts provided an accurate prediction of where each Apollo spacecraft would be and what features would be visible to the crew and mission controllers at any specific time while circling the Moon.

This particular chart was produced for the Apollo 11 landing mission (proposed launch date 18 July). It depicts the location of desired photographic targets along the spacecraft’s ground track. The instructions specify which camera to use, where to point it and how many frames to take in a given time. It shows also three possible landing sites including that close to Apollo 11’s actual point of touch down towards the edge of the Sea of Tranquility (and some 25 km from the location of the unmanned Surveyor V spacecraft).

Produced at: John F Kennedy Space Center, Brevard county, Canaveral, Cape, Florida, United States