How long does it take to get to the Moon?
About 3 days. The Apollo astronauts reached the Moon roughly 3 days after launch, and NASA’s Artemis II crew flew around it about 5 days after launching in April 2026. Below: trip times to Mars, the Sun, the planets and the stars, how fast every kind of plane and jet flies, and a calculator for any trip.
The Space Shuttle never went to the Moon: it flew only in low Earth orbit, a few hundred kilometers up, and reached orbit about 8½ minutes after launch. The Moon averages 384,400 km (238,855 miles) away, about a thousand times farther.
Travel time calculator
Distances to the Moon, Sun and planets are live, from the positions of the planets right now. Real spacecraft don’t fly in straight lines at constant speed: they speed up, coast on curved orbits and wait for planets to line up, so actual trips take longer.
How far away is everything right now?
| From Earth to | Distance | In miles | Light takes |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Moon | … | … | … |
| The Sun | … | … | … |
| Venus | … | … | … |
| Mars | … | … | … |
| Jupiter | … | … | … |
| Saturn | … | … | … |
| Pluto | … | … | … |
Updated every second. Light covers 299,792 km every second, so “light takes” is also how long a radio message to a spacecraft there would take.
Trips to the Moon
| Mission | Year | Time to the Moon | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Luna 1 (USSR) | 1959 | about 34 hours | First spacecraft to reach the Moon’s neighborhood; it missed and flew past |
| Apollo 8 | 1968 | about 69 hours | First people to orbit the Moon |
| Apollo 11 | 1969 | about 76 hours to lunar orbit | Launched July 16, landed July 20 |
| New Horizons | 2006 | about 8 hours 35 minutes | Fastest ever past the Moon’s orbit, on its way to Pluto; it didn’t stop |
| SMART-1 (ESA) | 2003–2004 | about 13 months | A slow spiral on an ion engine that sipped fuel |
| Artemis I (uncrewed) | 2022 | about 5 days to its close flyby | Tested the Orion capsule |
| Artemis II | 2026 | about 5 days to its flyby | Four astronauts around the Moon and back in about 10 days, April 1–10, 2026 |
Why such different times? A direct path, like Apollo’s, gets there in about 3 days. Artemis uses a “free-return” loop that brings the capsule home safely even if its main engine fails, and that takes longer. A spacecraft that isn’t stopping, like New Horizons, can cross the distance in hours; one using a tiny, efficient ion engine, like SMART-1, can take more than a year.
Trips to Mars, the planets and beyond
| Destination | Mission | Trip time |
|---|---|---|
| Mars | Perseverance (2020–2021) | about 7 months (203 days) |
| Mars | Curiosity (2011–2012) | about 8½ months (254 days) |
| Mars | Viking 1 (1975–1976) | about 10 months |
| Venus | Magellan (1989–1990) | about 15 months to orbit |
| Mercury | MESSENGER (2004–2011) | about 6½ years to orbit, using flybys to slow down |
| Jupiter | Juno (2011–2016) | about 5 years |
| Saturn | Cassini (1997–2004) | about 6 years 9 months |
| Pluto | New Horizons (2006–2015) | about 9½ years |
| Edge of the solar system | Voyager 1 (1977–2012) | about 35 years to leave the Sun’s bubble |
Mars is the hardest to plan: spacecraft launch only when Earth and Mars line up, about every 26 months, and then coast for 7 to 9 months on an orbit that touches both planets’ paths. The nearest star system, Alpha Centauri, is 4.37 light-years away: at Voyager 1’s speed of about 61,000 km/h, the trip would take roughly 77,000 years.
How fast do planes and jets fly?
| Aircraft | Typical or record speed | New York to London (about 5,570 km) |
|---|---|---|
| Wright Flyer (1903) | about 11 km/h (7 mph) over the ground | The first flight lasted 12 seconds and covered 120 feet |
| Spirit of St. Louis (1927) | about 175 km/h (108 mph) average | Lindbergh: New York to Paris in 33½ hours |
| Cessna 172 (small propeller plane) | about 226 km/h (140 mph) | about 25 hours, if it could carry the fuel |
| Turboprop airliner | about 510 km/h (317 mph) | about 11 hours |
| Jet airliner (Boeing 737, 787, Airbus A350) | 840–910 km/h (520–565 mph) cruising | about 7 hours east, 8 hours west |
| Record airliner, with the jet stream (2020) | over 1,200 km/h (745 mph) over the ground | 4 hours 56 minutes, British Airways, February 2020 |
| Business jet (fastest civil jets) | up to Mach 0.94, about 1,000 km/h | about 6 hours |
| Concorde (1976–2003) | Mach 2.04, about 2,179 km/h (1,354 mph) | about 3½ hours; record 2 h 52 min 59 s in 1996 |
| Fighter jets (F-15, F-22) | Mach 2.25–2.5 | They don’t carry enough fuel without refueling |
| SR-71 Blackbird | Mach 3.3; record 3,530 km/h (2,193 mph) | 1 h 54 min 56 s, a 1974 record that still stands |
| X-15 rocket plane | Mach 6.7, 7,274 km/h (4,520 mph) in 1967 | Fastest crewed aircraft; it flew only a few minutes at a time |
Airliners fly faster eastbound across the Atlantic because the jet stream, a river of wind 10 to 12 km up, blows from west to east, sometimes at more than 300 km/h. That is why New York to London is usually about an hour quicker than the return. To work out any route, use the flight time calculator, or see flight times for 248 popular routes.
The speed records
- Fastest people ever: the Apollo 10 crew, at 39,897 km/h (24,791 mph) on their way home from the Moon in 1969.
- Fastest human-made object: NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, about 692,000 km/h (430,000 mph) as it swung past the Sun in December 2024.
- Fastest crewed aircraft: the X-15, Mach 6.7, in 1967.
- Fastest jet aircraft: the SR-71 Blackbird, 3,530 km/h, in 1976.
- Fastest airliner: Concorde, Mach 2.04; it crossed the Atlantic in under 3 hours.
Questions people ask
How long does it take to get to the Moon?
About 3 days. The Apollo astronauts reached lunar orbit roughly 3 days after launch. NASA’s Artemis II crew took about 5 days to fly around the Moon in April 2026 because they followed a slower, safer looping path. The fastest spacecraft to pass the Moon’s distance, New Horizons, did it in about 8½ hours without stopping.
Did the Space Shuttle go to the Moon?
No. The Space Shuttle (1981–2011) only flew in low Earth orbit, about 300 to 600 km (200 to 400 miles) up. It reached orbit about 8½ minutes after launch. The Moon is about 384,000 km away, roughly a thousand times farther.
How long does it take to get to Mars?
About 7 to 9 months. Spacecraft launch when Earth and Mars line up well, about every 26 months. NASA’s Perseverance rover took 203 days, from July 30, 2020, to February 18, 2021.
How long would it take to drive to the Moon?
At highway speed, 100 km/h (60 mph), nonstop, about 160 days: a little over 5 months.
How long does light take to reach the Moon and Mars?
About 1.3 seconds to the Moon and about 8 minutes 20 seconds from the Sun. To Mars it takes from about 3 to about 22 minutes, depending on where the planets are, which is why Mars rovers can’t be driven live. The table on this page shows the current figures.
How fast does a commercial jet fly?
A jet airliner cruises at about 840 to 910 km/h (520 to 565 mph), or Mach 0.78 to 0.85, at 10 to 12 km (33,000 to 40,000 feet). With a strong jet stream behind it, its speed over the ground can top 1,200 km/h.
What is the fastest plane ever?
The X-15 rocket plane reached Mach 6.7 (7,274 km/h, 4,520 mph) in 1967. The fastest jet-powered plane is the SR-71 Blackbird, at 3,530 km/h (2,193 mph) in 1976. The fastest airliner was Concorde, at Mach 2.04.
Related: flight time calculator · flight times around the world · time zone converter · why fast clocks run slow · Moon phase today · planets tonight
Sources
- Al Jazeera: Artemis II timeline
- NASA: Mars 2020 Perseverance
- NASA: New Horizons
- NASA: Parker Solar Probe
- Guinness World Records: aircraft speed records
Last updated October 21, 2026.