Apollo in Real Time

Lore & Background

Ben Feist began the Apollo 17 real-time project in 2009 as a part-time hobby and launched it six years later in 2015. It was the first real-time site published, including raw audio from onboard voice and air-to-ground communication channels released by NASA, and film collected by archivist Stephen Slater. The alpha version was released in March 2015, with a final version for the 43rd anniversary in December 2015. Additional content, including 3D renderings of Lunar Roving Vehicle traverses using data from the Goddard Space Flight Center, was added for the 44th anniversary.

The Apollo 11 real-time site covers from 20 hours before launch to just after recovery, featuring 11,000 hours of Mission Control audio, 2,000 photographs, and 240 hours of space-to-ground audio. It includes about 50 audio channel recordings, allowing viewers to select among every control position in Mission Control. On the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11, Space.com simulcast the live feed from the site.

For Apollo 13, a team of researchers spent eight months gathering materials. The site includes over 7,300 hours of audio and video, including four audio tapes from the time of the explosion that had been missing and were recovered from the National Archives in fall 2019. The Apollo 13 site launched on March 13, 2020, in time for the 50th anniversary of the launch.

Reader's Guide

Apollo in Real Time represents a significant achievement in historical preservation and public access to space mission archives. By synchronizing thousands of hours of audio, video, and photographs to the actual mission clock, the sites allow users to experience Apollo missions as they unfolded. The project's scope is vast: Apollo 17 includes 300 hours of audio, 22 hours of video, and 4,200 photographs; Apollo 11 includes 11,000 hours of Mission Control audio and 240 hours of space-to-ground audio; Apollo 13 includes over 7,300 hours of audio and video, including previously lost audio from the explosion. The sites have been recognized by Air & Space magazine, and the Apollo 11 site was simulcast by Space.com on its 50th anniversary. The project also expanded to cover the International Space Station with the launch of ISS in Real Time on October 27, 2025, created by Feist and fellow NASA contractor David Charney.

Did You Know?

• The Apollo 17 real-time site was the first published, launched in 2015 after six years of development as a part-time hobby.
• The Apollo 13 site includes four audio tapes from the time of the explosion that were missing and recovered from the National Archives in fall 2019.
• The Apollo 11 site includes information on each of the lunar surface samples collected by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.
• ISS in Real Time presents mission data from the International Space Station over the past 25 years.

Founding in the Wake of Drexel's Collapse

Apollo Global Management traces its origins to the dramatic collapse of Drexel Burnham Lambert in 1990. From the wreckage of that once-dominant investment bank, three former colleagues—Leon Black, who had led Drexel's mergers and acquisitions division, Josh Harris, and Marc Rowan—stepped forward to build something new. Within just six months of Drexel's demise, they launched Apollo Investment Fund L.P., a private-equity vehicle designed to target distressed companies. The fund attracted roughly $400 million in investor commitments, buoyed largely by Black's reputation as a prominent figure in Michael Milken's circle and a key architect of the 1980s buyout boom. With little financing available for traditional leveraged buyouts at the time, the young firm pivoted to a distressed-to-control strategy: purchasing troubled debt that could be converted into equity ownership through bankruptcy reorganizations. This approach led to early stakes in companies like Vail Resorts, Walter Industries, Culligan, and Samsonite. One of the firm's earliest and most profitable moves involved acquiring the Executive Life Insurance Company bond portfolio, generating returns when high-yield bond values recovered, though it also triggered state regulatory complications for Apollo and its partner Credit Lyonnais.

A Multi-Strategy Colossus: Scale and Structure

As of 2025, Apollo Global Management oversees approximately $840 billion in assets under management, making it one of the largest alternative-asset managers in the world. The portfolio is heavily weighted toward credit, which accounts for $392 billion and spans mezzanine capital, hedge funds, non-performing loans, and collateralized loan obligations. Private equity represents $99 billion of the total, while real assets—including real estate and infrastructure—make up $46.2 billion. The firm serves a diverse client base that includes pension funds, financial endowments, sovereign wealth funds, and both institutional and individual investors. Beyond its private funds, Apollo operates Apollo Investment Corporation (AIC), a publicly traded closed-end fund and Business Development Company domiciled in the United States. AIC extends mezzanine debt, senior secured loans, and equity investments to middle-market companies, including publicly listed firms, though it has historically avoided companies already controlled by Apollo's private-equity funds. The company maintains its headquarters in the Solow Building in New York City and operates offices across North America, Europe, and Asia.

Spin-Offs and the Ecosystem That Grew From Apollo

Apollo's early years were marked not only by its own growth but also by the emergence of several spin-off firms from within its ranks. In 1993, the company partnered with William Mack to launch Apollo Real Estate Advisers, which closed its first real estate opportunity fund with $500 million in commitments. Apollo eventually exited that partnership in 2000, and the firm continued under new ownership before rebranding as AREA Property Partners in 2009. Meanwhile, in 1995, founding partner Craig Cogut departed to establish Pegasus Capital Advisors, which would go on to raise $1.8 billion across four funds focused on middle-market companies in financial distress. Perhaps the most significant spinout came in 1997, when partners Antony Ressler and John Kissick, along with Bennett Rosenthal from Merrill Lynch's leveraged finance group, founded Ares Management to manage a $1.2 billion collateralized debt obligation vehicle. Although Ares completed its formal corporate spin-off from Apollo in 2002, the two firms maintained a close relationship for their first five years, with Ares operating as Apollo's West Coast affiliate. By 1995, Apollo had also raised its third private-equity fund at $1.5 billion, attracting commitments from major institutions like CalPERS and the General Motors pension fund.

Controversy, Resilience, and a Lasting Legacy

Apollo's trajectory has not been free of turbulence. In 2021, co-founder and long-time CEO Leon Black resigned from the firm amid serious sexual misconduct allegations and the revelation that he had paid $158 million to Jeffrey Epstein. The departure marked a significant leadership transition for a company that Black had helped build from the ashes of Drexel Burnham Lambert three decades earlier. Despite the controversy, Apollo continued to grow and solidify its position in the global alternative-investment landscape. In June 2024, the firm ranked 29th on Private Equity International's PEI 300 list of the world's largest private equity firms—a testament to the scale it had achieved since those early days of distressed-debt investing in the early 1990s. The company's evolution from a small New York shop targeting troubled companies to a multi-strategy, multi-continental manager with hundreds of billions in assets under management represents one of the most remarkable growth stories in the history of alternative asset management.

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