In May 1961 Pres. John F. Kennedy committed America to landing astronauts on the Moon by 1970. The choice among competing techniques for achieving a Moon landing and return was not resolved until considerable further study. Three methods were considered. In direct ascent, one vehicle would lift off from Earth, land on the Moon, and return. However, the proposed Nova rocket would not be ready by 1970. In Earth orbit rendezvous, a spacecraft carrying the crew would dock in Earth orbitwith the propulsion unit that would carry enough fuel to go to the Moon. However, this method required two separate launches.
In the method ultimately employed, lunar orbit rendezvous, a powerful launch vehicle (Saturn V rocket) placed a 50-ton spacecraft in a lunar trajectory. The spacecraft had three parts. The conical command module(CM) carried three astronauts. The service module (SM) was attached to the back of the CM and carried its fuel and power to form the command/service module (CSM). Docked to the front of the CSM was the lunar module (LM). One astronaut stayed in the CSM while the other two landed on the Moon in the LM. The LM had a descent stage and an ascent stage. The descent stage was left on the Moon, and the astronauts returned to the CSM in the ascent stage, which was discarded in lunar orbit. The LM was flown only in the vacuum of space, so aerodynamic considerations did not affect its design. (Thus, the LM has been called the first “true” spacecraft.) Before reentering Earth’s atmosphere, the SM was jettisoned to burn up. The CM splashed down in the ocean. The lunar orbit rendezvous had the advantages of requiring only one rocket and of saving fuel and mass since the LM did not need to return to Earth.
Lunar craters; Apollo 12 Lunar craters and the lunar module Intrepid as seen from the Apollo 12 command module Yankee Clipper, Nov. 19, 1969.NASA
Uncrewed missions testing Apollo and the Saturn rocket began in February 1966. The first crewed Apollo flight was delayed by a tragic accident, a fire that broke out in the Apollo 1 spacecraft during a ground rehearsal on January 27, 1967, killing astronauts Virgil Grissom, Edward White, and Roger Chaffee. NASA responded by delaying the program to make changes such as not using a pure oxygen atmosphere at launch and replacing the CM hatch with one that could be opened quickly.
Apollo 11: Moon landing, 1969 Perhaps the most famous of all space films, these clips document the arrival of the first human beings on the Moon during the afternoon of July 20, 1969. They comprise footage of the landing of the Apollo 11 spacecraft, taken with a 16-mm camera mounted in Edwin Aldrin's window, and Neil Armstrong's first steps on the Moon, recorded by a television camera whose signal was transmitted back to NASA Mission Control in Houston. In the audio can be heard one of the most famous misstatements in history: Armstrong had planned to say “That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind,” but he forgot the “a” in the excitement of the moment.NASA
In October 1968, following several un-screwed Earth-orbit flights, Apollo 7 made a 163-orbit flight carrying a full crew of three astronauts. Apollo 8 carried out the first step of crewed lunar exploration: from Earth orbit it was injected into a lunar trajectory, completed lunar orbit, and returned safely to Earth. Apollo 9 carried out a prolonged mission in Earth orbit to check out the LM. Apollo 10 journeyed to lunar orbit and tested the LM to within 15.2 km (9.4 miles) of the Moon’s surface. Apollo 11, in July 1969, climaxed the step-by-step procedure with a lunar landing; on July 20 astronaut Neil Armstrong and then Edwin (“Buzz”) Aldrin became the first humans to set foot on the Moon’s surface.
Apollo 13, launched in April 1970, suffered an accident caused by an explosion in an oxygen tank but returned safely to Earth. Remaining Apollo missions carried out extensive exploration of the lunar surface, collecting 382 kg (842 pounds) of Moon rocks and installing many instruments for scientific research, such as the solar wind experiment and the seismographic measurements of the lunar surface. Beginning with Apollo 15, astronauts drove a lunar rover on the Moon. Apollo 17, the final flight of the program, took place in December 1972. In total, 12 American astronauts walked on the Moon during the six successful lunar landing missions of the Apollo program.
Apollo 11; Moon rock An overview of Apollo 11's landing on the Moon, including the continuing scientific study of the rock specimens collected during the mission.© Open University (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
Apollo 12Apollo 12 lifting off from John F. Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida, November 14, 1969.NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Collection
Apollo 15Apollo 15 astronaut James B. Irwin standing in back of the Lunar Roving Vehicle; the Lunar Module (LM) is at left with the modular equipment storage assembly (MESA) in front of it. Apollo 15 was launched July 26, 1971.NASA
Apollo CSMs were used in 1973 and 1974 in the Skylab program to take astronauts to an orbiting space station. In July 1975 an Apollo CSM docked with a Soviet Soyuz in the last flight of an Apollo spacecraft.
A chronology of spaceflights in the Apollo program is shown in the table.
*Astronauts Virgil Grissom, Edward White, and Roger Chaffee were killed on Jan. 27, 1967, in a test for the first Apollo mission. This mission was originally called Apollo 204 but was redesignated Apollo 1 as a tribute to the astronauts. Numbering of the Apollo missions began with the fourth subsequent uncrewed test flight, Apollo 4. Apollo 5 and 6 were also uncrewed flights. There was no Apollo 2 or 3.
Apollo 7
Walter Schirra, Jr.
Oct. 11–22, 1968
Donn Eisele
Walter Cunningham
Apollo 8
William Anders
Dec. 21–27, 1968
first to fly around the Moon
Frank Borman
James Lovell, Jr.
Apollo 9
James McDivitt
March 3–13, 1969
test of Lunar Module in Earth orbit
David Scott
Russell Schweickart
Apollo 10
Thomas Stafford
May 18–26, 1969
rehearsal for first Moon landing
John Young
Eugene Cernan
Apollo 11
Neil Armstrong
July 16–24, 1969
first to walk on the Moon (Armstrong and Aldrin)
Edwin ("Buzz") Aldrin
Michael Collins
Apollo 12
Charles Conrad
Nov. 14–24, 1969
landed near uncrewed Surveyor 3 space probe
Richard Gordon
Alan Bean
Apollo 13
James Lovell, Jr.
April 11–17, 1970
farthest from Earth (401,056 km [249,205 miles]); survived oxygen tank explosion
Fred Haise, Jr.
Jack Swigert
Apollo 14
Alan Shepard
Jan. 31–Feb. 9, 1971
first use of modular equipment transporter (MET)
Stuart Roosa
Edgar Mitchell
Apollo 15
David Scott
July 26–Aug. 7, 1971
first use of lunar rover
Alfred Worden
James Irwin
Apollo 16
John Young
April 16–27, 1972
first landing in lunar highlands
Thomas Mattingly
Charles Duke
Apollo 17
Eugene Cernan
Dec. 7–19, 1972
last to walk on the Moon (Cernan and Schmitt)
Harrison Schmitt
Ron Evans
Apollo (Apollo-Soyuz Test Project)
Thomas Stafford
July 15–24, 1975
docked in space with Soyuz 19
Vance Brand
Donald ("Deke") Slayton
Moon: Apollo to the present
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Apollo 11 crew members Neil Armstrong and Edwin (“Buzz”) Aldrin made the first lunar landing on July 20, 1969. A total of 12 Americans on six separate Apollo missions set foot on the Moon between July 1969 and December 1972. Since then, no humans have…
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