Apollo program

 

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)'s Apollo program, also known as Project Apollo, was the third American human spaceflight program that was successful in preparing for and landing the first humans on the Moon between 1968 and 1972. It was first envisioned as a three-person spacecraft in 1960, under the presidency of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, as a follow-up to Project Mercury, a one-person spacecraft that sent the first Americans into orbit. In a speech to Congress on May 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy set "landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth" as the nation's aim for the 1960s. Apollo was eventually named in his honor. After the two-person Project Gemini mission, it was the third US human spaceflight program to fly. Before it, the two-person Project Gemini, which was created in 1961 to increase spaceflight capabilities in support of Apollo, was the third US human spaceflight program to fly.

On the Apollo 11 mission, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed their Apollo Lunar Module (LM) and walked on the lunar surface on July 20, 1969, while Michael Collins remained in lunar orbit in the command and service module (CSM). On July 24, all three astronauts successfully touched down on Earth in the Pacific Ocean. Five further Apollo missions, the last of which, Apollo 17, sent humans to the Moon in December 1972. In these six space missions, twelve humans made lunar landings.

The first crewed flight of Apollo, which operated from 1961 to 1972, took place in 1968. It suffered a significant setback in 1967 when an Apollo 1 cabin fire that occurred during a prelaunch test killed the entire crew. With the intention of conducting extensive lunar geological and astrophysics investigation, there was still enough flying hardware after the initial successful landing for nine further landings. Three of them had to be canceled due to budget constraints. Five of the six subsequent missions managed safe landings, but Apollo 13's landing was thwarted when an oxygen tank explosion occurred during the CSM's journey to the Moon. By utilizing the lunar module as a "lifeboat" on the return trip, the crew just about made it back to Earth without incident. The Saturn series of rockets served as the launch platform for Apollo. which were also utilized for an Apollo Applications Program, which included Skylab, a space station that hosted three crewed flights from 1973 to 1974, and the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, a combined US-Soviet Union low Earth orbit mission in 1975.

Apollo achieved numerous significant human spaceflight achievements. It is the only country that sends crewed missions beyond low Earth orbit. The first crewed spacecraft to circle another celestial body was Apollo 8, and the first to land people on one was Apollo 11.