How fast did they fly to the moon?

Answer 1

It took roughly 3 days to get from the earth to the moon. If you figure the average distance from the Earth to the moon is 238,000 miles you can calculate the average speed the spacecraft were travelling (238,000 miles / 72 hours = 3,305.5 mph)

The exact speed cannot be given because it was constantly changing. In order to escape the Earth's gravity the spacecraft had to initially speed up to around 24,000 mph. Once they had achieved escape velocity, however, they shut down the rocket engine and coasted the rest of the way to the moon.

When you, for example, coast in your car, you are slowly decelerating. This deceleration is caused by friction between the tires and the road, friction as the car moves through the air, etc. The same thing, in principle, happened to the Apollo spacecraft, with the exception that the deceleration wasn't caused by friction, but by the tug of Earth's gravity. Just like when you throw a ball straight up and the Earth's gravity pulls it back down, it was trying to pull the Apollo back down as well.

At a specific point between the Earth and Moon, however, the gravity of the Moon began to have a stronger effect on the Apollo craft than the gravity of the Earth. At this point the spacecraft began to accelerate again, falling towards the lunar surface instead. Once the spacecraft reached the moon the astronauts had to fire their rocket again to slow down, enter lunar orbit, and avoid whipping right by into open space.

To return back home they repeated these steps in reverse, only instead of firing rockets to slow down and enter orbit around the Earth, they slowed down enough to fall into the Earth's atmosphere.

Answer 2

The Apollo spacecraft traveled to the Moon at speeds of up to 24,000 miles per hour (38,600 km/h) during the journey. This speed was needed to escape Earth's gravity and reach the Moon's orbit.