6:47
a.m.
Crew awakens and begins
to prepare for splashdown.
12:21
p.m.
Command and service
modules are separated.
12:35
p.m.
Command module re-enters
the Earth's atmosphere.
12:51
p.m.
Spacecraft splashes
down 825 nautical miles southwest of Honolulu and about 13 nautical miles
from the recovery ship, the U.S.S. Hornet.
1:20 p.m.
Hatch of command
module opens and frogman hands in isolation suits.
1:28 p.m.
Astronauts emerge
from the spacecraft in isolation suits and are sprayed with a disinfectant
as a guard against the possibility of their contaminating the Earth
with Moon "germs."
1:57 p.m.
Astronauts arrive
by helicopter on the flight deck of the Hornet. Still inside the helicopter
they ride an elevator to hangar deck and then walk immediately into
the mobile quarantine trailer in which they will remain until they arrive
at the Lunar Receiving Laboratory at Houston early July 27.
3:00 p.m.
President Nixon welcomes
the astronauts, visible through a window of the trailer. Speaking over
an intercom, he greets them, extends them an invitation to attend a
dinner with him August 13. and tells them:
"This is the greatest week in the history of the world since the Creation.... As a result of what you have done, the world's never been closer together .... We can reach for the stars just as you have reached so far for the stars."
3:55 p.m.
The command module
arrives on board the Hornet after traveling 952,700 nautical miles since
July 16.
So ends man's first mission to the Moon. It has lasted 195 hours, 18 minutes and 35 seconds or a little more than eight days. It is recognized as the most trouble-free mission to date, almost completely on schedule and successful in every respect.