Map showing landing web-site and images taken Right after about 7 hrs of rest, the crew was awakened by Houston to arrange to the return flight. Two along with a 50 % hrs afterwards, at 17:fifty four:00 UTC, they lifted off in Eagle's ascent stage to rejoin Collins aboard Columbia in lunar orbit.[145] Movie taken in the LM ascent phase upon liftoff

At the outset, NASA dismissed LOR to be a riskier option, as a space rendezvous had however for being done in Earth orbit, a lot less in lunar orbit. Various NASA officers, together with Langley Investigate Centre engineer John Houbolt and NASA Administrator George Low, argued that a lunar orbit rendezvous supplied the simplest landing around the M