The whole journey to the Moon and back, in real time
You fly as a mission specialist
Moon Journey is an iPhone app that takes you to the Moon and back in real time. You fly as a mission specialist in a crew of four, from liftoff at Kennedy Space Center to a splashdown in the Pacific eight or nine days later.
Start the countdown whenever you are ready. Put the phone down and come back, and the ship has moved on exactly as far as it would have. Anything you missed can be watched again.
Commander
Flies the ship. Lands, and walks on the Moon.
Pilot
Flies the ship. Stays in orbit aboard Independence.
Mission specialist
Stays in orbit aboard Independence.
You
Mission specialist. Land with the commander aboard Liberty, and walk on the Moon.
Under the searchlights The count
Before dawn, launch control counts down. At 8.9 seconds the engines light.
Liftoff and the twelve minutes to orbit are free in the app.
Sunrise every ninety minutes
The engines fall quiet and you are in orbit, 115 miles up. Out of the window the thin line of Earth's air turns red, then blue, as the Sun comes up over its edge.
One burn, then three days out
Nearly six minutes on the engine send the ship on its way. Earth shrinks behind Independence, with Liberty riding on its nose. Watch from the window, from a camera on a wing, or from alongside.
68 miles above the Moon
Behind the Moon, out of touch with Houston, the engine fires and Independence settles into orbit over ground drawn from the Moon's measured heights, by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and Japan's Kaguya.
The commander goes first The ladder
From the hatch you watch the last rungs, down to the footpad.
The next step is yours.
You walk the Moon yourself
Drag and hold to walk, tap to hop, and watch the dust fly in clean arcs with no air to hold it. The commander works nearby, picks up rocks, and waves when you come close.
Nearly three days home The fire of the air
The crew capsule meets the top of the air at more than 24,000 miles an hour. Its heat shield glows, and the radio goes quiet.
What comes next, you see from your seat.
Liftoff to splashdown on the real clock
Every moment comes when it would on a real flight, on your own clock, day or night. Notifications, if you want them, give you a heads-up a few minutes before each big moment, and only when you are not watching.
- Free
Start the countdown
Launch control picks up the count.
- Free
Liftoff
From across the water, or from your window.
- Free
Earth orbit
Twelve minutes after liftoff.
The burn for the Moon
Nearly six minutes on the engine.
Lunar orbit
Behind the Moon, out of touch with Houston.
Touchdown
Liberty on the Moon, its engine blowing the dust away in the last few feet.
The moonwalk
Nearly four hours outside.
Liftoff from the Moon
Back up to Independence.
The burn for home
Nearly three days to Earth.
Splashdown
The Pacific.
Times from the computed flight of October 23, 2026. Every flight has its own, and the pictures on this page come from more than one.
Flown the way Apollo flew
Every flight is a full calculation of a mission that could be flown from Kennedy Space Center, under the pull of Earth, the Moon and the Sun. One rocket, a ship that stays in orbit around the Moon, and a lander that goes down and comes back.
The rocket is of the Saturn V's size and steered the way the Saturn V was; its climb comes within a few percent of Apollo 11's published one. A page in the app says what is worked out, what is measured, and what is filled in. No rocket leaves the pad.
- 4Crew
A commander, a pilot and two mission specialists. You land with the commander; the other two keep the ship in orbit.
- 8–9Days
From liftoff to splashdown, on the real clock. Nothing can be skipped ahead.
- 68Miles above the Moon
The orbit Independence keeps, over ground drawn from the Moon's measured heights.
- 4 MBetween measured heights
The ground you walk is the land around the Apollo 16 landing site in the Descartes highlands, as NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter measured it in stereo.
- 9,096Stars
From the Yale Bright Star Catalogue, each at its true place, brightness and color.
- 24,097Miles an hour
Into the top of the air on the way home, on the computed flight of October 23, 2026.
The best seat on the App Store for the whole journey to the Moon
We searched the App Store on October 19, 2026, and found no other app that flies the whole journey in real time, from liftoff to splashdown, with a moonwalk you take yourself.
Built for iPhone Duo
Apple's foldable arrives on October 23, 2026, the same day as Moon Journey. Closed, open, or folded like a book or a laptop, the view fills the screen and the words take a page of their own. It runs on every iPhone with iOS 26 or later, too.
One purchase for the whole journey
The launch
FreeThe countdown, the liftoff and the climb to orbit. Watch the launch again as often as you like.
Continue the Journey
$3.99The burn for the Moon, the landing, your moonwalk and the way home to the sea, for that flight and every flight after it. Bought once, shared with your family through Family Sharing.
- No subscription
- No ads
- No accounts
- No data collected
- Works without a connection
