Overall the Apollo program returned 842 pounds (382 kg) of lunar rocks and soil to Earth, greatly contributing to the understanding of the Moon's composition and geological history. Apollo 8 was the first crewed spacecraft to orbit another celestial body, and Apollo 11 was the first crewed spacecraft to land humans on one. It stands alone in sending crewed missions beyond low Earth orbit. Apollo used the Saturn family of rockets as launch vehicles, which were also used for an Apollo Applications Program, which consisted of Skylab, a space station that supported three crewed missions in 1973–1974, and the Apollo–Soyuz Test Project, a joint United States- Soviet Union low Earth orbit mission in 1975.Īpollo set several major human spaceflight milestones.

The crew barely returned to Earth safely by using the lunar module as a 'lifeboat' on the return journey. Five of the remaining six missions achieved successful landings, but the Apollo 13 landing was prevented by an oxygen tank explosion in transit to the Moon, crippling the CSM. Budget cuts forced the cancellation of three of these.

After the first successful landing, sufficient flight hardware remained for nine follow-on landings with a plan for extended lunar geological and astrophysical exploration. It encountered a major setback in 1967 when an Apollo 1 cabin fire killed the entire crew during a prelaunch test. In these six spaceflights, twelve people walked on the Moon.Įarthrise, the iconic 1968 image from Apollo 8 taken by astronaut William AndersĪpollo ran from 1961 to 1972, with the first crewed flight in 1968. Five subsequent Apollo missions also landed astronauts on the Moon, the last, Apollo 17, in December 1972. Kennedy's goal was accomplished on the Apollo 11 mission when astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed their Apollo Lunar Module (LM) on July 20, 1969, and walked on the lunar surface, while Michael Collins remained in lunar orbit in the command and service module (CSM), and all three landed safely on Earth in the Pacific Ocean on July 24. It was the third US human spaceflight program to fly, preceded by the two-person Project Gemini conceived in 1961 to extend spaceflight capability in support of Apollo. Kennedy's national goal for the 1960s of 'landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth' in an address to Congress on May 25, 1961. Apollo was later dedicated to President John F. Eisenhower's administration as a three-person spacecraft to follow the one-person Project Mercury, which put the first Americans in space. It was first conceived in 1960 during President Dwight D.

The Apollo program, also known as Project Apollo, was the third United States human spaceflight program carried out by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which succeeded in preparing and landing the first humans on the Moon from 1968 to 1972.

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