How long does it take to get to the Moon? If you’re planning your next weekend break to spend time on the lunar surface, you’ll need to know exactly how long it will take to get there.
While we’re a ways off building bases on the Moon, NASA’s Artemis mission is taking people back onto the lunar surface for the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972. The aim of the Artemis mission is to build the Lunar Gateway, which will place a space station in lunar orbit to act as a staging post for future trips to the Moon.
Artemis 3 is set to bring people back onto the Moon for the first time in over 50 years. This mission is likely to take place in 2026 at the earliest – but how long will it take the astronauts to get to the Moon?
Read on to find out how far away the Moon is from the Earth, how long it takes to get to the Moon, how long it took Apollo 11, and how long it takes a probe to get there.
How far away is the Moon?
The Moon doesn’t have a fixed distance away from the Earth. Just as the Earth’s orbit isn’t 100 per cent circular around the Sun, the Moon’s orbit isn’t around the Earth. It gets closer and further away over time.
The Moon is 363,104km from Earth at its closest point (perigee) and 405,696km away at its farthest (apogee). Taking these measurements, the average distance between the Earth and the Moon is around 384,400km.
The elliptical nature of the Moon’s orbit of the Earth is just one of many factors scientists need to take into account when planning missions up there.
How long does it take to get to the Moon?
It’s difficult to give a definitive answer on how long it takes to get to the Moon but it should take just over three days. There are a multitude of factors to account for, including the changing distance between us and the Moon, take-off trajectory, whether the craft is manned or unmanned, choice of propulsion system, and whether it’s landing, orbiting, or flying by.
During NASA’s Apollo program, the fastest mission was Apollo 8, which took 69 hours and eight minutes to enter the lunar orbit insertion burn. This was the quickest of NASA's Apollo missions – each mission after this had flight durations of 74 hours and over. The final Moon-landing mission, Apollo 17, took 86 hours and 14 minutes to reach the Moon.
The Artemis 1, an uncrewed craft, took five days in 2022 to reach the Moon’s orbit. Travelling to the Moon has become slower in the years since the 'one small step for man and a giant leap for mankind' took place, mainly because we have moved on from a direct transfer trajectory to save on fuel and costs.
How long did it take to get to the Moon in 1969?
The Apollo 11 Moon-landing mission in 1969 took astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins 75 hours and 49 minutes to get to and land on the Moon. That’s just over three days. This is the time it took for them to actually land on the Moon, not just entering its orbit.
According to NASA, an entire Apollo mission, from leaving Earth and landing back at home took a total of eight days, three hours, 18 minutes, and 35 seconds. Here is the full list of Apollo missions to the Moon and how long they took:
- Apollo 8: 69 hours, 8 minutes (1968)
- Apollo 10: 75 hours, 55 minutes (1969)
- Apollo 11: 75 hours, 49 minutes (1969)
- Apollo 12: 83 hours, 25 minutes (1969)
- Apollo 13: 76 hours (1970)
- Apollo 14: 81 hours, 56 minutes (1971)
- Apollo 15: 78 hours, 31 minutes (1971)
- Apollo 16: 74 hours, 28 minutes (1972)
- Apollo 17: 86 hours, 14 minutes (1972)
How long does it take a probe to get to the Moon?
A probe can get to the Moon in around eight and a half hours.
The New Horizons probe took eight hours and 35 minutes to reach the moon. It eventually reached Pluto after nine years in 2015.
Other probes can take far longer to reach the Moon, however, and the time taken is dependent on different factors including fuel used and more. The European Space Agency’s Smart-1 probe in 2003, for example, took one year and six weeks to get to the Moon. Its use of electric-ion propulsion (using up just 82kg of Xenon fuel), the reason behind its slow speed.
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