Little West (lunar crater) maps. The name was officially approved by IAU's Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature on July 26, 2017 alongside another small crater near the landing site called Double. Little West (lunar crater) Little West is a small crater (30-meter diameter) in Mare Tranquillitatis on the Moon, east of the Apollo 11 landing site known as Tranquility Base. The Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed the Lunar Module (LM) "Eagle" approximately 60 meters west of Little West Crater on July 20, 1969. This is the crater Neil Armstrong mentions during his final descent onto the lunar surface. The
Apollo Lunar Module with the aid of landing radar. During the braking phase altitude decreased to approximately , then the final approach phase went to approximately . During final approach, the vehicle pitched over to a near-vertical position, allowing the crew to look forward and down to see the lunar surface for the first time. Astronauts only flew Apollo spacecraft manually during the lunar approach. The final landing phase began approximately uprange of the targeted landing site. At this point manual control was enabled for the Commander, and enough propellant reserve was allocated to allow approximately two minutes of hover time to survey