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How long would it take to get to the Moon?
The Moon is 225,744 miles from Earth at its closest and 251,966 miles at its farthest. A car at 65 mph would need 145 days for the shorter distance and 162 days for the longer. A passenger jet at 570 mph would need 17 days and 18 days.
225,744 mi
Distance at the closest
1.2 seconds
Light travel time at the closest
145 days
By car at 65 mph
17 days
By jet at 570 mph
Travel time by vehicle
| Vehicle | Speed | Closest | Typical | Farthest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Walking | 3 mph | 8.6 years | 9.1 years | 9.6 years |
| Bicycle | 12 mph | 2.1 years | 2.3 years | 2.4 years |
| Car on a highway | 65 mph | 145 days | 153 days | 162 days |
| Passenger jet | 570 mph | 17 days | 17 days | 18 days |
| SR-71 Blackbird, its official speed record | 2,193 mph | 4 days 7 hours | 4 days 13 hours | 4 days 19 hours |
| Voyager 1, about 17 km/s | 38,028 mph | 5 hours 56 minutes | 6 hours 16 minutes | 6 hours 37 minutes |
| Parker Solar Probe at closest approach, 692,000 km/h | 429,989 mph | 31 minutes 30 seconds | 33 minutes 20 seconds | 35 minutes 10 seconds |
| Light | 670,616,629 mph | 1.2 seconds | 1.3 seconds | 1.4 seconds |
How long real spacecraft took
Apollo 8 needed 2 days 21 hours and Apollo 11 4 days 7 hours. Spacecraft rarely fly straight at a target. They follow curved paths timed to launch windows, so the trip is longer than the distance alone suggests.
| Mission | Launched | Arrived | Trip time | What happened |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apollo 8 | December 21, 1968 | December 24, 1968 | 2 days 21 hours | Entered lunar orbit |
| Apollo 11 | July 16, 1969 | July 20, 1969 | 4 days 7 hours | Landed in the Sea of Tranquility |
Why the answer changes
The Moon is 1.1 times farther away at its farthest than at its closest, so every travel time above is 1.1 times longer at the far end. The Moon's orbit is an ellipse, with a closest point (perigee) of 225,744 miles and a farthest point (apogee) of 251,966 miles. The typical figure is its average distance.
Try your own speed
Other destinations
Sources and method
- Distances: NASA Planetary Fact Sheet, accessed October 18, 2026. Closest and farthest are the minimum and maximum distance from Earth in NASA's table. Typical is the midpoint, except for the Moon (average distance) and the Sun (mean distance).
- Vehicle speeds are round figures chosen for comparison, not measurements. Light travels at 299,792.458 km/s.
- Apollo 8: NASA Apollo 8 mission report (launch 7:51 am EST); orbit insertion time from Wikipedia.
- Apollo 11: Launch time from NASA (9:32 am EDT); landing time from Wikipedia, NASA's pages give the date.