If you hear your coworkers muttering about Houston and mission control this week, there’s a reason.

With just days to go ahead of the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, AOL and the John F. Kennedy presidential library have launched a brilliant website that simulates the voyage from beginning to end.

We choose the moon — named for Kennedy’s famous 1962 speech in Houston –  recreates the moon landing mission with animations, real-time transcripts and audio between the cockpit and Mission control,and a wealth of other multimedia background information.

The site is full of social media widgets and gizmos, so you can embed a countdown timer on your computer or Facebook page and follow the mission chatter on Twitter.

At the time this blog post was written, Apollo 11 is in Earth orbit, prepared to commence stage 4 of the mission. The crew reports: “Our insertion checklist is complete and we have no abnormalities.”

More coverage:

• Moon-lovers remember Apollo with radio chit-chat
• Aldrin made strong case to be first on moon
• NASA launches probes to scout the moon
• Apollo 11 graphic: