Coasting to the Moon

Abstract

A large part of the Apollo journey was spent in coasting flight; a period of time, usually somewhere between the Moon and Earth, when the three crewmen waited to reach a destination or when the command module pilot was waiting for his two crewmates to return from their exploration of the lunar surface. Although this part of the flight held little interest for the news media, the crew were nevertheless kept busy with a great variety of tasks ranging from the clever precision of the CMP’s navigation commitment to matters of personal hygiene.