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Apollo program
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The Apollo program was the United States spaceflight effort which landed the first humans on Earth's Moon. Conceived during the Eisenhower administration and conducted by NASA, Apollo began in earnest after President John F. Kennedy's 1961 address to Congress declaring a national goal of "landing a man on the Moon" by the end of the decade in a competition with the Soviet Union for supremacy in space.
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| Buzz Aldrin during Apollo 11's first moon landing in 1969 |
This goal was first accomplished during the Apollo 11 mission on July 20, 1969 when astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed, while Michael Collins remained in lunar orbit. Five subsequent Apollo missions also landed astronauts on the Moon, the last in December 1972. In these six Apollo spaceflights, 12 men walked on the Moon. These are the only times humans have landed on another celestial body.
The Apollo program ran from 1961 until 1975, and was America's third human spaceflight program (following Mercury and Gemini). It used Apollo spacecraft and Saturn launch vehicles, which were also used for the Skylab program in 1973–74, and a joint U.S.–Soviet mission in 1975. These subsequent programs are thus often considered part of the Apollo program.
The program was successfully carried out despite two major setbacks: the 1967 Apollo 1 launch pad fire that killed three astronauts; and an oxygen tank rupture during the 1970 Apollo 13 flight which disabled the command spacecraft. Using the lunar lander as a "lifeboat", the three crewmen narrowly escaped with their lives, thanks to their skills and the efforts of flight controllers, project engineers, and backup crew members.
Apollo set major milestones in human spaceflight. It stands alone in sending manned missions beyond low Earth orbit; Apollo 8 was the first manned spacecraft to orbit another celestial body, while Apollo 17 marked the last moonwalk and the last manned mission beyond low Earth orbit. The program spurred advances in many areas of technology incidental to rocketry and manned spaceflight, including avionics, telecommunications, and computers. Apollo also sparked interest in many fields of engineering and left many physical facilities and machines developed for the program as landmarks. Its command modules and other objects and artifacts are displayed throughout the world, notably in the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museums in Washington, DC and at NASA's centers in Florida, Texas and Alabama.
Main article: Space Race
The Apollo program was conceived early in 1960, during the Eisenhower administration, as a follow-up to America's Mercury program. While the Mercury capsule could only support one astronaut on a limited earth orbital mission, the Apollo spacecraft was to be able to carry three astronauts on a circumlunar flight and eventually to a lunar landing. The program was named after the Greek god of light and music by NASA manager Abe Silverstein, who later said that "I was naming the spacecraft like I'd name my baby." While NASA went ahead with planning for Apollo, funding for the program was far from certain given Eisenhower's ambivalent attitude to manned spaceflight.
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| May 25, 1961: President John Kennedy addresses Congress on his plan to put a man on the Moon within nine years. |
In November 1960, John F. Kennedy was elected president after a campaign that promised American superiority over the Soviet Union in the fields of space exploration and missile defense. Using space exploration as a symbol of national prestige, he warned of a "missile gap" between the two nations, pledging to make the U.S. not "first but, first and, first if, but first period." Despite Kennedy's rhetoric, he did not immediately come to a decision on the status of the Apollo program once he became president. He knew little about the technical details of the space program, and was put off by the massive financial commitment required by a manned Moon landing. When NASA Administrator James Webb requested a 30 percent budget increase for his agency, Kennedy supported an acceleration of NASA's large booster program but deferred a decision on the broader issue.
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| President Kennedy delivers a speech at Rice University on the American space program, September 12, 1962 |
On April 12, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person to fly in space, reinforcing American fears about being left behind in a technological competition with the Soviet Union. At a meeting of the U.S. House Committee on Science and Astronautics one day after Gagarin's flight, many congressmen pledged their support for a crash program aimed at ensuring that America would catch up. Kennedy, however, was circumspect in his response to the news, refusing to make a commitment on America's response to the Soviets. On April 20, Kennedy sent a memo to Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, asking Johnson to look into the status of America's space program, and into programs that could offer NASA the opportunity to catch up. Johnson responded approximately one week later, concluding that "we are neither making maximum effort nor achieving results necessary if this country is to reach a position of leadership." His memo concluded that a manned Moon landing was far enough in the future that it was likely the United States would achieve it first.
On May 25, 1961, Kennedy announced his support for the Apollo program during a special address to a joint session of Congress:
First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important in the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish.
John F. Kennedy
At the time of Kennedy's speech, only one American had flown in space—less than a month earlier—and NASA had not yet sent an astronaut into orbit. Even some NASA employees doubted whether Kennedy's ambitious goal could be met.
Landing men on the Moon by the end of 1969 required the most sudden burst of technological creativity, and the largest commitment of resources ($24 billion), ever made by any nation in peacetime. At its peak, the Apollo program employed 400,000 people and required the support of over 20,000 industrial firms and universities.
We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too... Many years ago the great British explorer George Mallory, who was to die on Mount Everest, was asked why did he want to climb it. He said, "Because it is there." Well, space is there, and we're going to climb it, and the Moon and the planets are there, and new hopes for knowledge and peace are there. And, therefore, as we set sail we ask God's blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked.
John F. Kennedy at Rice University
See also: Moon landing
Once Kennedy had defined a goal, the Apollo mission planners were faced with the challenge of designing a set of flights that could meet this stated goal while minimizing risk to human life, cost, and demands on technology and astronaut skill. Four possible mission modes were considered:
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| Early Apollo configuration for Direct Ascent and Earth Orbit Rendezvous (1961) |
In early 1961, direct ascent was generally the mission mode in favor at NASA. Many engineers feared that a rendezvous -- let alone a docking -- neither of which had been attempted even in Earth orbit, would be extremely difficult in lunar orbit. However, dissenters including John Houbolt at Langley Research Center emphasized the important weight reductions that were offered by the LOR approach. Throughout 1960 and 1961, Houbolt campaigned for the recognition of LOR as a valid and practical option. Bypassing the NASA hierarchy, he sent a series of memos and reports on the issue to Associate Administrator Robert Seamans; while acknowledging that he spoke "somewhat as a voice in the wilderness," Houbolt pleaded that LOR should not be discounted in studies of the question.
Seamans' establishment of the Golovin committee in July 1961 represented a turning point in NASA's mission mode decision. While the ad-hoc committee was intended to provide a recommendation on the boosters to be used in the Apollo program, it recognized that the mode decision was an important part of this question. The committee recommended in favor of a hybrid EOR-LOR mode, but its consideration of LOR — as well as Houbolt's ceaseless work — played an important role in publicizing the workability of the approach. In late 1961 and early 1962, members of NASA's Space Task Group at the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston began to come around to support for LOR. The engineers at Marshall Space Flight Center took longer to become convinced of its merits, but their conversion was announced by Wernher von Braun at a briefing in June 1962. NASA's formal decision in favor of LOR was announced on July 11, 1962. Space historian James Hansen concludes that:
Without NASA's adoption of this stubbornly held minority opinion in 1962, the United States may still have reached the Moon, but almost certainly it would not have been accomplished by the end of the 1960s, President Kennedy's target date.
James Hansen
Main article: Apollo Spacecraft
The decision in favor of lunar orbit rendezvous dictated the basic design of the Apollo spacecraft. It would consist of two main sections: the Command/Service Module (CSM), in which the crew would spend most of the mission, and the Lunar Module (LM), which would descend to and return from the lunar surface.
Main article: Apollo Command/Service Module
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| Apollo 15 CSM in lunar orbit |
The command module (CM) was conical in shape, and was designed to carry three astronauts from launch into lunar orbit and back from the moon to splashdown. Equipment carried by the command module included reaction control engines, a docking tunnel, guidance and navigation systems and the Apollo Guidance Computer. Attached to the command module was the service module (SM), which housed the service propulsion system and its propellants, the fuel cell power system, four maneuvering thruster quads, the S-band antenna for communication with Mission Control, and storage tanks for water and air. On Apollo 15, 16 and 17 it also carried a scientific instrument package. The two sections of the spacecraft would remain attached until just prior to re-entry, at which point the service module would be discarded. Only the command module was provided with a heat shield that would allow it and its passengers to survive the intense heat of re-entry. After re-entry it would deploy parachutes that would slow its descent through the atmosphere, allowing a smooth splashdown in the ocean.
Under the leadership of Harrison Storms, North American Aviation won the contract to build the CSM for NASA. Relations between North American and NASA were strained during the Apollo program, particularly after the Apollo 1 fire during which three astronauts died. The cause of the accident was determined to be an electrical short in the wiring of the command module; while determination of responsibility for the accident was complex, the review board concluded that ‘“deficiencies existed in Command Module design, workmanship and quality control.”’
Main article: Apollo Lunar Module
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| Apollo 16 LM on the lunar surface |
The Lunar Module (LM) (also known as Lunar Excursion Module, or LEM), was designed solely to land on the moon, and to ascend from the lunar surface to the command module. It had a limited heat shield and was of a construction so lightweight that it would not have been able to fly in Earth gravity. It carried two crewmembers and consisted of two stages, a descent and an ascent stage. The descent stage incorporated compartments in which cargo such as the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiment Package and Lunar Rover could be carried.
The contract for design and construction of the lunar module was awarded to Grumman, and the project was overseen by Tom Kelly. There were also problems with the lunar module; due to delays in the test program, the LM became what was known as a "pacing item," meaning that it was in danger of delaying the schedule of the whole Apollo program. Due to these issues, the Apollo missions were rescheduled so that the first manned mission with the lunar module would be Apollo 9, rather than Apollo 8 as was originally planned.
When the team of engineers led by Wernher von Braun began planning for the Apollo program, it was not yet clear what sort of mission their rocket boosters would have to support. Direct ascent would require a booster, the planned Nova rocket, which could lift a very large payload. NASA's decision in favor of lunar orbit rendezvous re-oriented the work of Marshall Spaceflight Center towards the development of the Saturn IB and Saturn V. While these were less powerful than the Nova would have been, the Saturn V was still much more powerful than any booster developed before—or since.
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| A Saturn IB rocket launches Apollo 7 into Earth orbit, October 11, 1968. |
Main article: Saturn IB
The Saturn IB was an upgraded version of the earlier Saturn I rocket, which was used in early Apollo boilerplate launches. It consisted of:
The Saturn IB was capable of putting a partially-fueled Command/Service Module, or a Lunar Module, into earth orbit. It was used in five of the Apollo test missions including the first manned mission. It was also used in the manned missions for the Skylab program and the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project.
Main article: Saturn V
The Saturn V was a three-stage rocket consisting of:
Three Saturn V vehicles launched on Earth orbital flights. Two of the three (Apollo 4 and 6) were unmanned tests of the command and service modules, and the third was a manned flight, Apollo 9, testing the lunar module. Nine Saturn Vs launched manned Apollo missions to the Moon, including Apollo 11. It was also used for the unmanned launch of Skylab.
The following astronauts flew on the 11 manned Apollo missions, plus the Apollo 1 crew who were killed in a ground test one month before they were to have flown the first manned mission. Not included are the astronauts who subsequently flew on the Skylab Apollo Applications Program or Apollo-Soyuz Test Project missions which used the Apollo CSM.
| From Astronaut Group 1 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Astronaut | Service | Mission | Mercury/Gemini Flights |
| Virgil "Gus" Grissom | USAF | Apollo 1 Command Pilot | Mercury-Redstone 4, Gemini 3 |
| Walter M. Schirra | USN | Apollo 7 CDR | Mercury-Atlas 8, Gemini 6A |
| Alan Shepard | USN | Apollo 14 CDR | Mercury-Redstone 3 |
| From Astronaut Group 2 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Astronaut | Service | Mission | Gemini Flights |
| Neil A. Armstrong | ex-USN | Apollo 11 CDR | Gemini 8 |
| Frank Borman | USAF | Apollo 8 CDR | Gemini 7 |
| Charles "Pete" Conrad | USN | Apollo 12 CDR | Gemini 5, Gemini 11 |
| James A. Lovell | USN | Apollo 8 CMP, Apollo 13 CDR | Gemini 7, Gemini 12 |
| James A. McDivitt | USAF | Apollo 9 CDR | Gemini 4 |
| Thomas P. Stafford | USAF | Apollo 10 CDR | Gemini 6A, Gemini 9A |
| Edward H. White II | USAF | Apollo 1 Senior Pilot | Gemini 4 |
| John W. Young | USN | Apollo 10 CMP, Apollo 16 CDR | Gemini 3, Gemini 10 |
| From Astronaut Group 3 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Astronaut | Service | Mission | Gemini Flights |
| Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin | USAF | Apollo 11 LMP | Gemini 12 |
| William A. Anders | USAF | Apollo 8 LMP | |
| Alan L. Bean | USN | Apollo 12 LMP | |
| Eugene A. Cernan | USN | Apollo 10 LMP, Apollo 17 CDR | Gemini 9A |
| Roger B. Chaffee | USN | Apollo 1 Pilot | |
| Michael Collins | USAF | Apollo 11 CMP | Gemini 10 |
| R. Walter Cunningham | ex-USMC | Apollo 7 LMP | |
| Donn F. Eisele | USAF | Apollo 7 CMP | |
| Richard F. Gordon, Jr. | USN | Apollo 12 CMP | Gemini 11 |
| Russell L. "Rusty" Schweickart | ex-USAF | Apollo 9 LMP | |
| David R. Scott | USAF | Apollo 9 CMP, Apollo 15 CDR | Gemini 8 |
| From Astronaut Group 4 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Astronaut | Service | Mission |
| Harrison H. Schmitt | Geologist | Apollo 17 LMP |
| From Astronaut Group 5 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Astronaut | Service | Mission |
| Charles M. Duke | USAF | Apollo 16 LMP |
| Ronald E. Evans | USAF | Apollo 17 CMP |
| Fred W. Haise | ex-USMC | Apollo 13 LMP |
| James B. Irwin | USAF | Apollo 15 LMP |
| T. Kenneth Mattingly | USN | Apollo 16 CMP |
| Edgar D. Mitchell | USN | Apollo 14 LMP |
| Stuart A. Roosa | USAF | Apollo 14 CMP |
| John L. Swigert | ex-USAF | Apollo 13 CMP |
| Alfred M. Worden | USAF | Apollo 15 CMP |
| Mission | CDR | Group | Mission # | CMP | Group | Mission # | LMP | Group | Mission # |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apollo 1 | Grissom | 1 | (3) | White | 2 | (2) | Chaffee | 3 | (1) |
| Apollo 7 | Schirra | 1 | 3 | Eisele | 3 | 1 | Cunningham | 3 | 1 |
| Apollo 8 | Borman | 2 | 2 | Lovell | 2 | 3 | Anders | 3 | 1 |
| Apollo 9 | McDivitt | 2 | 2 | Scott | 3 | 2 | Schweickart | 3 | 1 |
| Apollo 10 | Stafford | 2 | 3 | Young | 2 | 3 | Cernan | 3 | 2 |
| Apollo 11 | Armstrong | 2 | 2 | Collins | 3 | 2 | Aldrin | 3 | 2 |
| Apollo 12 | Conrad | 2 | 3 | Gordon | 3 | 2 | Bean | 3 | 1 |
| Apollo 13 | Lovell | 2 | 4 | Swigert | 5 | 1 | Haise | 5 | 1 |
| Apollo 14 | Shepard | 1 | 2 | Roosa | 5 | 1 | Mitchell | 5 | 1 |
| Apollo 15 | Scott | 3 | 3 | Worden | 5 | 1 | Irwin | 5 | 1 |
| Apollo 16 | Young | 2 | 4 | Mattingly | 5 | 1 | Duke | 5 | 1 |
| Apollo 17 | Cernan | 3 | 3 | Evans | 5 | 1 | Schmitt | 4 | 1 |
Mission rules specified that, in most circumstances, only one person in the Mission Control Center would communicate directly with the in-flight crew, and that this was to be another astronaut, who would be best able to understand the situation in the spacecraft and communicate with the crew in the clearest way. These individuals were designated Capsule Communicators or CAPCOMs, a term carried over from the Mercury and Gemini programs. They were usually chosen from the backup and support crews, and worked in shifts during long missions.
The periodic beeps heard during communications with the astronauts are known as Quindar tones.
See also: List of Apollo missions
See also: List of Apollo mission types
Preparations for the Apollo program began long before the manned Apollo missions were flown. Test flights of the Saturn I booster began in October 1961 and lasted until September 1964. Three further Saturn I launches carried boilerplate models of the Apollo command/service module. Two pad abort tests of the launch escape system took place in 1963 and 1965 at the White Sands Missile Range. Three unmanned tests of Apollo components with the Saturn IB (Apollo-Saturn, or AS) were officially designated AS-201, AS-202, and AS-203.
The only unmanned missions to include "Apollo", rather than their serial number, as part of their name were Apollo 4, Apollo 5 and Apollo 6. The simple numbering was started at "4" due to the previous three Apollo-Saturn flights using the Saturn IB, nevertheless these next three unmanned flights kept their "AS" call signs as AS-501, AS-204, and AS-502, respectively. The "AS-20 series" continued to be reserved for Saturn IB flights, and the "AS-50" series designated Saturn V launches.
Apollo 4 was the first test flight of the Saturn V booster. Launched on November 9, 1967, Apollo 4 exemplified George Mueller's strategy of "all up" testing. Rather than being tested stage by stage, as most rockets were, the Saturn V would be flown for the first time as one unit. The mission was a highly successful one. Walter Cronkite covered the launch from a broadcast booth about 4 miles (6 km) from the launch site. The extreme noise and vibrations from the launch nearly shook the broadcast booth apart- ceiling tiles fell and windows shook. At one point, Cronkite was forced to dampen the booth's plate glass window to prevent it from shattering. This launch showed that additional protective measures were necessary to protect structures in the immediate vicinity. Future launches used a damping mechanism directly at the launchpad which proved effective in limiting the generated noise.
Apollo 5 was a Saturn IB flight which tested a legless, windowless version of the lunar module (LM) in Earth orbit. No Command and Service Module (CSM) was included. The critical LM engines were tested, including an in-flight test of the second state engine in "abort mode," a test of an emergency procedure which would have been unnecessarily dangerous to test on a manned flight.
Apollo 6 was the last in the series of unmanned Apollo missions. It was launched on April 4, 1968, and landed back on Earth almost ten hours later at 21:57:21 UTC. It was a Saturn V flight intended to send a CSM and a "dummy" LM (Lunar Module Test Article) of the correct mass, all to the velocity needed to go to the moon, then, after 5 minutes, use the SPS (service module engine) to return the CM to Earth from a distance that would never be greater than 12,000 nautical miles. This 10 hour mission would fully test the Saturn V's ability to launch a full Apollo craft into trans-lunar orbit, and test re-entry from a simulated lunar return, including the correct re-entry velocity and angle of -6.5 degrees. The mission was only a partial success, due to vibrations and failure of fuel lines to several Saturn V engines, and in particular a failure of the third stage to re-ignite to send the craft from Earth orbit into a translunar injection orbit. Instead, somewhat as in Apollo 4, the SPS was used to raise the craft to a higher Earth orbit. The CM returned with a velocity midway between low Earth orbit and lunar return velocity. This mission was considered successful enough to attempt to successfully repeat it (minus the LM, but with an actual voyage into lunar orbit) as a manned version: Apollo 8.
The manned missions carried three astronauts, designated as Commander, Command Module Pilot (CMP), and Lunar Module Pilot (LMP). Besides exercising all crew command decisions, the Commander was the primary pilot of both spacecraft (when present) and was first to exit the LM on the surface of the Moon. The CMP functioned as navigator, usually performed the initial docking with the LM, and remained in the Command/Service Module when his companions flew the LM. The LMP functioned as engineering officer, monitoring the systems of both spacecraft. On a landing mission, he accompanied the Commander on the lunar surface. On the last flight, the LMP was a professional geologist, Dr. Harrison Schmitt.
Apollo 7, launched on October 11, 1968, was the first manned mission in the program. It was an eleven-day Earth-orbital flight intended to test the Command Module, redesigned following the Apollo 1 fire. It was the first manned launch of the Saturn IB launch vehicle and the first three-man American space mission.
//Jim Irwin near a Lunar Roving Vehicle used on Apollos 15–17
Between December 21, 1968 and May 18, 1969, NASA planned to launch three manned test / practice missions using the Saturn V launch vehicle and the complete spacecraft including the LM. But by the summer of 1968 it became clear to program managers that a fully functional LM would not be available for the Apollo 8 launch. Rather than waste the Saturn V on another simple Earth-orbiting mission, they chose to send the crew planned to make the second orbital LM test in Apollo 9, to orbit the Moon in the CSM on Apollo 8 during Christmas. The original idea for this switch was the brainchild of George Low, Manager of the Apollo Spacecraft Program Office. Although it has often been claimed that this change was made as a direct response to Soviet attempts to fly a piloted Zond spacecraft around the Moon, there is no evidence that this was the case. NASA officials were aware of the Soviet Zond flights, but the timing of the Zond missions does not correspond well with the extensive written record from NASA about the Apollo 8 decision. The Apollo 8 decision was primarily based upon the LM schedule, not fear of the Soviets beating the Americans to the Moon.
//On the final Apollo mission, the Apollo 17 crew left this plaque as on all landings.
This was followed by the first orbital manned LM flight on Apollo 9 (with the original Apollo 8 crew), and the lunar "dress rehearsal" Apollo 10 which took the LM to within 50,000 feet (15 km) of the surface, but did not land.
That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.
Neil Armstrong
The next two flights (11 and 12) included successful Moon landings. The Apollo 13 mission was aborted before the landing attempt, but the crew returned safely to Earth. The four subsequent Apollo missions (14 through 17) included successful Moon landings. The last three of these were J-class missions that included the use of Lunar Rovers.
Apollo 17, launched December 7, 1972, was the last Apollo mission to the Moon. Mission commander Eugene Cernan was the last person to leave the Moon's surface. The crew returned safely to Earth on December 19, 1972.
Summary of missions
| Mission | Launch vehicle | Crew | Launch date | Planned profile | Results |
| AS-201 | Saturn 1B | Unmanned | February 26, 1966 | Suborbital CSM test | First test flight of Saturn IB and Apollo Command and Service Modules; demonstrated heat shield; propellant pressure loss caused premature SM engine shutdown |
| AS-203 | Saturn IB | Unmanned | July 5, 1966 | Orbital S-IVB test | No Apollo spacecraft carried; successful test of liquid hydrogen fuel behavior to verify restartable S-IVB stage design for Saturn V. Additional testing designed to rupture the tank inadvertently destroyed the stage. |
| AS-202 | Saturn IB | Unmanned | August 25, 1966 | Suborbital CSM test | Longer duration to Pacific Ocean spashdown; CM heat shield tested to higher speed; successful SM firings |
| AS-204 (Apollo 1) | Saturn IB | Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, Edward White, Roger B. Chaffee | None | Fourteen-day CSM orbital flight | Cabin fire broke out in pure oxygen atmosphere during launch rehearsal test on 27 January 1967, killing all three crewmen and destroying the CM. |
| Apollo 4 | Saturn V | Unmanned | November 9, 1967 | Highly elliptical orbital CSM test | Successfully demonstrated S-IVB third stage restart and tested CM heat shield at lunar re-entry speeds |
| Apollo 5 | Saturn IB | Unmanned | January 22, 1968 | Lunar Module test | Successfully fired descent engine and ascent engine; demonstrated "fire-in-the-hole" landing abort test. Used the Saturn IB originally slated for Apollo 1. |
| Apollo 6 | Saturn V | Unmanned | April 4, 1968 | CSM test: trans-lunar injection with direct abort to high-speed re-entry | Severe "pogo" vibrations caused two second-stage engines engines to shut down prematurely, and third stage restart to fail. SM engine used to achived high-speed re-entry, though less than Apollo 4. NASA identified vibration fixes and declared Saturn V man-rated. |
| Apollo 7 | Saturn IB | Walter M. "Wally" Schirra, Donn Eisele, Walter Cunningham | October 11, 1968 | Eleven-day CSM orbital flight | Successful test of Block II CSM. First live television broadcast from a US space flight |
| Apollo 8 | Saturn V | Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, William A. Anders | December 21, 1968 | Lunar orbit (CSM only) | First manned lunar flight, improvised because LM was not ready for first manned orbital test. Ten lunar orbits in twenty hours; first humans to see lunar far side and Earthrise with own eyes; Live television pictures broadcast to Earth |
| Apollo 9 | Saturn V | James McDivitt, David Scott, Russell L. "Rusty" Schweickart | March 3, 1969 | Earth orbit CSM / LM test | Ten days in Earth orbit, demonstrated LM propulsion, rendezvous and docking with CSM. EVA tested lunar Portable Life Support System (PLSS). |
| Apollo 10 | Saturn V | Thomas P. Stafford, John W. Young, Eugene Cernan | May 18, 1969 | "Dress rehearsal" for lunar landing | LM descended to 8.4 nautical miles (15.6 km) without landing |
| Apollo 11 | Saturn V | Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, Edwin E. "Buzz" Aldrin | July 16, 1969 | First lunar landing | Sea of Tranquility; single EVA in direct vicinity of LM. Navigation errors and computer alarms overcome |
| Apollo 12 | Saturn V | Charles "Pete" Conrad, Richard Gordon, Alan Bean | November 14, 1969 | Lunar landing | Ocean of Storms; successful precision landing near Surveyor 3 probe; two EVAs, returned Surveyor parts to earth; first controlled LM ascent stage impact after jettison; first use of deployable S-band antenna; two lightning strikes after liftoff with brief loss of fuel cells and telemetry; lunar TV camera damaged by accidental exposure to sun. |
| Apollo 13 | Saturn V | Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert, Fred Haise | April 11, 1970 | Lunar landing | Planned Fra Mauro landing aborted after SM oxygen tank explosion on outward leg; LM used as crew "lifeboat" for safe return. First S-IVB stage impact on Moon as active seismic test. |
| Apollo 14 | Saturn V | Alan B. Shepard, Stuart Roosa, Edgar Mitchell | January 31, 1971 | Lunar landing | Successful landing at Fra Mauro site intended for Apollo 13; mission overcame docking problems, faulty LM abort switch and delayed landing radar acquisition; first color video images from the lunar surface; first materials science experiments in space; two EVAs |
| Apollo 15 | Saturn V | David Scott, Alfred Worden, James Irwin | July 26, 1971 | Extended lunar landing | First "J series" mission with 3-day lunar stay and extensive geology investigations; first use of lunar rover (17.25 miles (27.76 km) driven); 1 lunar "standup" EVA, 3 lunar surface EVAs, plus deep space EVA on return to retrieve orbital camera film from SM. |
| Apollo 16 | Saturn V | John W. Young, Ken Mattingly, Charles Duke | April 16, 1972 | Extended lunar landing | Only landing in lunar highlands; malfunction in a backup CSM yaw gimbal servo loop delayed landing and reduced stay in lunar orbit; no ascent stage deorbit due to malfunction; 3 lunar EVAs plus deep space EVA |
| Apollo 17 | Saturn V | Eugene Cernan, Ronald Evans, Harrison H. "Jack" Schmitt | December 7, 1972 | Extended lunar landing | Last Apollo lunar landing; last (to date) human flight beyond low Earth orbit; only lunar mission with a scientist (geologist); 3 lunar EVAs plus deep space EVA |
| Planned Apollo 18, 19, and 20 | Saturn V | Missions cancelled | Never launched | Extended lunar landings | Three more landings were planned; canceled to cut costs |
This page was last modified on Thursday, 2nd June 2022 at 09:51:10 by Gary Keeling. © 2026 space.gkmail.uk.
