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Snapshot
November 12, 2009
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Just a couple weeks ago we posted the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter's image of the Apollo 17 landing site. Now the spacecraft has flown over the Apollo 11 site, which is worth comparing. Much has been made of the treacherous boulder field around West Crater that forced Neil Armstrong to take manual control of the lunar lander and fly about another quarter-mile downrange (the spacecraft was traveling right-to-left above the moonscape in this photo) in search of a level, boulder-free area for a safe landing. This image reveals just how much debris lay around West Crater. Zoom the image to see Armstrong's trail of footprints leading to the right, to Little West Crater (also known as East Crater, as it lies east of the landing site), where, just before the end of the historic moonwalk, he decided to break with the flight plan and ventured as far as either astronaut had from the vicinity of the lander—not even the length of a soccer field.
