Learn about the Apollo program - America's Moon-lift program

The Apollo (Project Apollo) program, launched and implemented by the United States in the 1960s, officially from 1961 to 1975, was responsible for bringing people to the Moon and bringing astronauts back to Earth in a way safe, before 1970.

That was the purpose set by President John F. Kennedy after the Mercury Program's first flight. That goal was achieved by the Apollo 11 flight mission in July 1969. During the program, the Saturn missile was used to launch Apollo spacecraft.

Logo of Apollo program.

The plan to bring people to the Moon

After defining the Moon as a target, the Apollo programmers face the challenge of offering a set of flights to meet the goals set by Kennedy while having to minimizing the risks of human life, cost, and technical and skill requirements of astronauts.

There are four feasible options that have been considered:

Configure Apollo for direct flight.Meeting on Earth Orbit - 1961 (NASA).

1. Fly up directly : This option suggests directing a spacecraft directly towards the Moon. The entire spacecraft will land and then return from the Moon. This will require a missile more powerful than the most powerful missile launched at that time, Nova rocket.
2. Meeting on Earth Orbit : This option, known as Earth orbit rendezvous (EOR), will require launching two Saturn V missiles, one with spacecraft and one containing fuel. The spacecraft will stay in orbit and be loaded into enough fuel to be able to fly to the Moon and then return. Also, the entire spacecraft will descend to the Moon.
3. Meeting on the Moon's Surface : This will require two spacecraft to be launched - the first, which is automatically controlled, carrying fuel, will land on the Moon, which will be followed by a time by a manned spacecraft. Fuel will be transferred to the manned spacecraft before it can fly back to Earth.
4. Meet on Moon orbit : This option, accepted and used, launched by John Houbolt and uses the Moon's trajectory technique (Lunar Orbit Rendezvous - LOR). The spacecraft is divided into several units, including a Command / Service Module (CSM) and a Moon Unit (Lunar Module - LM; originally Lunar Excursion Module - LEM). CSM contained a life support system for a three-person crew on a five-day flight to the Moon and then returned and a thermal protector cover when they re-entered the Earth's atmosphere. LM will split from CSM on the Moon's orbit and bring two astronauts down to the surface of the Moon, then return to CSM.

In contrast to other alternatives, the LOR option requires only a small fraction of the spacecraft to land on the Moon, thereby minimizing the amount of discharge from the Moon's surface for the return flight. The released mass is further reduced by leaving part of the LM (the part with the machine lowered) on the Moon's surface.

The Moon unit (Lunar Module) itself consists of a downstairs and a floor that launches, the lower floor will become a launch pad for the upper floor when the Moon expedition returns to the Moon's orbit, where they will enter rejoin CSM before returning to Earth. This option has the advantage that because the LM will eventually be removed, it can be done very lightly, so that the entire mission can be launched only by a Saturn V. missile, however, when the LOR is decided , some people sketch uncomfortable flights before the amount of input and separation required for the plan.

Apollo LM on the surface of the Moon.

To learn the techniques of landing on the Moon, the interns in the Moon Landing Research Facility (Lunar Landing Research Vehicle - LLRV), a simulated flight device (by a special jet engine) ) gravity is reduced, and the Moon Unit will fly in it.

The spacecraft of the Apollo program

Apollo.

Apollo spacecraft is part of the Apollo program, designed with a variety of units to carry out the mission. From the top down, the spacecraft has components: the escape system (Lauch Escape System), the control unit (Command Module - CM), the service unit (Service Module), the unit landing on the Moon ( Lunar Module - LM) and Moon converter (lunar adapter module).

All these floors of the spacecraft are on the top of the launch missile. The rocket launcher is Little Joe II, Saturn I, Saturn IB and Saturn V.

On July 20, 1969, the Apollo 11 took the first astronauts to set foot on the Moon, Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin.

Manned flights

Flights to the Moon were canceled

The post-Apollo flights use Apollo and Saturn IB equipment