Command module Columbia

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  Columbia, designated CM-107, is the only piece of Apollo 11 hardware that returned to Earth in 1969. Three people rode it to lunar orbit and home, and when the mission was over, the capsule's story was far from over. How it came by its name involves a phone call, a hesitant astronaut, and a surprising literary connection. What the crew chose to write on the interior walls says more about the journey than any official record does.

• 2. Naming a Moon Ship

  ›

  "Some of us up here have been kicking around Columbia." Julian Scheer said that to astronaut Michael Collins in a phone conversation before the Apollo 11 mission. Scheer was NASA's assistant administrator of public affairs during the Apollo program. He tossed the name out almost in passing. Collins' first reaction was that "Columbia" struck him as "a bit pompous." He could not settle on an alternative, though, and neither Buzz Aldrin nor Neil Armstrong had any objections. What finally brought Collins around was the name of a fictional weapon. Columbia sounded like Columbiad, the name of the space gun in Jules Verne's 1865 novel From the Earth to the Moon. That resemblance was enough. The name stuck, tying the Apollo 11 mission to a science fiction writer who had dreamed of that same destination in 1865.

• 3. A Milestone in Flight

  ›

  After the Apollo 11 mission and a tour of American cities, Columbia was transferred to the Smithsonian Institution in 1971. The museum designated it a "Milestone in Flight." It was placed prominently in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., alongside the 1903 Wright Flyer. Forty-five years after the capsule arrived at the Smithsonian, the museum set out to document it in an entirely new way.

• 4. Writing on the Walls

  ›

  In July 2016, the Smithsonian's Digitization Program Office released a 3D scan of Columbia. The scanning process turned up something unexpected. In several spots across the interior, the Apollo 11 crew had written directly on the spacecraft's walls. Two of those writings stand out: a calendar and a warning, inscribed on one of the lockers, about smelly waste stored inside. These are not messages aimed at posterity. They are the day-to-day notes of three people managing a confined environment on a demanding journey. Three years after the scan was released, Columbia left Washington for a tour that would take it to five cities.

• 5. Back on the Road

  ›

  In 2019, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing, Columbia visited museums in Houston, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Seattle, and Cincinnati. Then in 2022, it came off display when the National Air and Space Museum began a renovation. When the museum reopened in the fall of 2022, Columbia moved into the center of a new exhibit called Destination Moon. The Destination Moon exhibit gives Columbia an entire gallery rather than a position alongside other artifacts.