It typically takes about three days for a spacecraft to travel from Earth to the Moon, covering an average distance of approximately 238,855 miles (384,400 kilometers)
. Details on travel times:
- The Apollo missions, which were crewed lunar missions in the late 1960s and early 1970s, generally took between about 69 hours (Apollo 8) and 86 hours (Apollo 17) to reach the Moon's orbit
- Apollo 11, the first mission to land humans on the Moon, took roughly 75 hours and 49 minutes to get there and land
- The fastest crewed flight to the Moon was Apollo 8, which entered lunar orbit in 69 hours and 8 minutes after launch
- Uncrewed probes can travel faster or slower depending on their mission profile and propulsion. For example, NASA's New Horizons probe passed the Moon in just 8 hours and 35 minutes en route to Pluto, but it did not stop or orbit the Moon
- Some missions take longer when using fuel-efficient trajectories; for instance, the CAPSTONE probe took about 4.5 months to reach lunar orbit by looping around Earth several times to save fuel
In summary, for typical crewed missions aiming to orbit or land on the Moon, the travel time is about three days, but this can vary widely depending on mission goals and technology used
