Chapter 1: Introduction to X-Plane Apollo

X-Plane Apollo is a realistic simulation of the lunar landing and docking operations of the Apollo 11 mission. In fact, it is the most complete, realistic simulation of a lunar landing available for the iPhone and iPod Touch, giving users a wide range of missions to try.

Users can start off docked with the command module in a lunar orbit, and then separate from the command module to start the journey down to the lunar surface. After that, the lander must go through a full de-orbit burn and orbital transfer, going from lunar orbit down to the touch-down phase of the flight. All of this, of course, happens in real time with the actual weight, thrust, fuel capacity, and fuel burn of the real Apollo 11 lander.

Following the de-orbit burn and orbit transfer, users enter the most challenging phase of the flight—the powered descent. During this phase of the mission, users must keep their tail pointed in the direction of flight, running full thrust to slow the craft from orbital speed to a standstill. This phase of the flight is actually where pilots spend most of their time.

After the powered descent comes the vertical descent and landing. This is accompanied by the sounds taken from the real lander, right down to the radio call-outs made by mission control as Neil and Buzz worked their way down in 1969.

Once users have aced the landing, they can cruise around on the moon in the rover! This is a realistic simulation of the 4- wheel drive (with a separate motor for each wheel), surprisingly speedy rover that was used for the Apollo 15, 16, and 17 missions—this is a lot of fun to drive in the 1/6th gravity conditions on the moon! No wonder the astronauts drove it 17 miles in one day.

After roving around in the off-off-off-road simulator, users can launch the lander back up toward the command module (waiting in orbit) and dock with it.

Additionally, a huge number of historic pictures are included in the app, spanning from images of the control room back on Earth to the launch to the touch down on the moon and everything in between.