Apollo program

Apollo program insignia

Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin walking on the Moon in July 1969

The Apollo program was the spaceflight effort carried out by the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), that landed the first humans on Earth's Moon. Conceived during the Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower, Apollo began in earnest after President John F. Kennedy proposed the national goal of "landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth" by the end of the 1960s in a May 25, 1961 address to Congress.^[1]^[2]

Kennedy's goal was accomplished with the Apollo 11 mission when astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed their Lunar Module (LM) on the Moon on July 20, 1969 and walked on its surface while Michael Collins remained in lunar orbit in the command spacecraft, and all three landed safely on Earth on July 24. Five subsequent Apollo missions also landed astronauts on the Moon, the last in December 1972. In these six spaceflights, 12 men walked on the Moon. These are the only times humans have landed on another celestial body.^[3]

Apollo ran from 1961 to 1972, following the Mercury and Gemini programs. It used Saturn family rockets as launch vehicles. Apollo / Saturn vehicles were also used for an Apollo Applications program which consisted of three Skylab space station missions in 1973–74, and a joint U.S.–Soviet mission in 1975.

Apollo was successful despite two major setbacks: the 1967 Apollo 1 cabin fire that killed the entire crew during a pre-launch test; and an in-flight failure on the 1970 Apollo 13 flight which disabled the command spacecraft's propulsion and life support, forcing the crew to use the LM as a "lifeboat" for these functions until they could return to Earth safely.

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. The Apollo 13 Command Module is housed at the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center in Hutchinson, Kansas.

Background

Choosing a mission mode

Spacecraft

Apollo CSM-LM, compared to scale with the smaller Gemini and Mercury spacecraft. Their Saturn, Titan and Atlas launch vehicles are also compared, in a smaller scale.

Main article: Apollo spacecraft

Preliminary design studies of Apollo spacecraft began in 1960 as a three-man command module supported by one of several service modules providing propulsion and electrical power, sized for use in various possible missions, such as: shuttle service to a space station, a circumlunar flight, or return to Earth from a lunar landing. Once the Moon landing goal became official, detailed design began of the Command/Service Module (CSM), in which the crew would spend the entire direct-ascent mission and lift off from the lunar surface for the return trip. (An even larger, separate propulsion module would have been required for the lunar descent.)

The final choice of lunar orbit rendezvous changed the CSM's role to a translunar ferry used to take the crew and a new spacecraft, the Lunar Module (LM), which would take two men to the lunar surface and return them to the CSM.

As the program concept evolved, use of the term "module" changed from its true meaning of an interchangeable component of systems with multiple variants, to simply a component of the complete lunar landing system.

Command/Service Module

Main article: Apollo Command/Service Module

Apollo 15 CSM in lunar orbit

The Command Module (CM) was the crew cabin, surrounded by a conical re-entry heat shield, designed to carry three astronauts from launch to lunar orbit and back to an Earth ocean splashdown. As such, it was the only component of the Apollo spacecraft to survive without major configuration changes as the program evolved from the early Apollo study designs. 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 cylindrical Service Module (SM), which housed the service propulsion engine and its propellants, the fuel cell power system, four maneuvering thruster quads, a high-gain S-band antenna for communications between the Moon and Earth, and storage tanks for water and oxygen. On the last three lunar missions, it also carried a scientific instrument package. Because its configuration was chosen early before the selection of lunar orbit rendezvous, the service propulsion engine was sized to lift the CSM off of the Moon, and thus oversized to about twice the thrust required for translunar flight.

As used in the actual lunar program, the two modules remained attached throughout most of the flight to make a single ferry craft known as the Command/Service Module (CSM), which carried a separate lunar lander (only half as heavy as the CSM) to the Moon, and the astronauts home to Earth. Just before re-entry, the Service Module was discarded and only the Command Module re-entered the atmosphere, using its heat shield to survive the intense heat caused by air friction. After re-entry it deployed parachutes that slowed its descent, allowing a smooth splashdown in the ocean.

Under the leadership of Harrison Storms, North American Aviation won the contract to build the CSM, and also the second stage of the Saturn V launch vehicle for NASA. Relations between North American and NASA were strained during the winter of 1965-66 by delivery delays, quality shortfalls, and cost overruns in both components.^[21] They were strained even more a year later when a cabin fire killed the crew of Apollo 1 during a ground test. The cause was determined to be an electrical short in the wiring of the Command Module; while the determination of responsibility for the accident was complex, the review board concluded that "deficiencies existed in Command Module design, workmanship and quality control."^[22] This eventually led to the removal of Storms as Command Module program manager.^[23]

Lunar Module

Main article: Apollo Lunar Module

Apollo 16 LM on the Moon

The Lunar Module (LM) (originally known as the Lunar Excursion Module, or LEM), was designed to fly between lunar orbit and the surface, landing two astronauts on the Moon and taking them back to the Command Module. It had no aerodynamic heat shield and was of a construction so lightweight that it would not have been able to fly through the Earth's atmosphere. It consisted of two stages, a descent and an ascent stage. The descent stage contained compartments which carried cargo such as the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiment Package and Lunar Rover.

The contract for design and construction of the Lunar Module was awarded to Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation, 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 a "pacing item," meaning that it was in danger of delaying the schedule of the whole Apollo program.^[24] The first manned LM was not ready for its planned Earth orbit test in December 1968, but the program was kept on schedule by cancelling a second manned Earth orbit LM flight.

Launch vehicles

When the team of engineers led by Wernher von Braun began planning for the Apollo program, it was not yet clear what mission their rockets would have to support. Direct ascent would require a more powerful launch vehicle, the planned Nova, which could carry a very large payload to the Moon. NASA's decision in favor of Lunar Orbit Rendezvous re-oriented the work of the Marshall Space Flight Center towards the development of the Saturn I, Saturn IB and Saturn V. While the Saturn V was less powerful than the Nova would have been, it was still much more powerful than any rocket developed before, or since. (The USSR N1 was approximately as powerful, but it was never successful.)

Saturn IB

A Saturn IB rocket launches Apollo 7, 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:

An S-IB first stage powered by eight H-1 engines burning RP-1 with LOX oxidizer, to produce 1,600,000 pounds-force (7,100 kN) of thrust;
An S-IVB-200 second stage, powered by one J-2 engine burning liquid hydrogen with LOX oxidizer, to produce 225,000 lbf (1,000 kN) of thrust; and
An Instrument Unit which contained the rocket's guidance system.

The Saturn IB was capable of putting a partially-fueled Command/Service Module, or a Lunar Module, into earth orbit.^[25] 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.

Saturn V

A Saturn V rocket launches Apollo 11 in 1969

Main article: Saturn V

The Saturn V was a three-stage rocket consisting of:

An S-IC first stage, powered by five F-1 engines arranged in a cross pattern, burning RP-1 with LOX oxidizer to produce 7,500,000 lbf (33,000 kN) of thrust. They burned for 2.5 minutes, accelerating the spacecraft to a speed of approximately 6,000 miles per hour (2.68 km/s).^[26]
An S-II second stage, powered by five of the J-2 engines used in the S-IVB. They burned for approximately six minutes, taking the spacecraft to a speed of 15,300 miles per hour (6.84 km/s) and an altitude of about 115 miles (185 km).^[27]
An S-IVB-500 third stage similar to the Saturn IB's second stage, with capability to restart the J-2 engine. The engine would burn for approximately two and a half minutes and shut down when a low-Earth parking orbit was achieved. After approximately two orbits to confirm the spacecraft was ready to commit to the lunar trip, the engine was restarted to make the translunar injection maneuver taking the spacecraft into an extremely high orbit where it would be captured by the Moon's gravity.^[28]
An instrument unit with a guidance system similar to that used on the Saturn IB.

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.

Missions

Unmanned missions

Apollo required more than six years of spacecraft and launch vehicle development and testing before the first manned missions could be flown. Test flights of the Saturn I launch vehicle 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 (in their chronological order of launch) as AS-201, AS-203, and AS-202.

The only unmanned missions to be publicly designated as "Apollo" followed by a sequence number were Apollo 4, Apollo 5 and Apollo 6.^[29] The simple numbering was started at "4" to follow the three Apollo-Saturn IB flights, though all subsequent flights kept the "AS" designations: AS-204 and following for Saturn IB flights, and AS-501 and following for Saturn V flights.

Apollo 4 was the first unmanned test flight of the Saturn V launch vehicle, carrying a Command/Service Module (CSM). 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. 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.^[30] 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. The mission was a highly successful one, demonstrating the capability of the Command Module's heat shield to survive a trans-lunar return reentry by using the Service Module engine to ram it into the atmosphere at higher than the usual earth-orbital reentry speed.

Apollo 5 was the first unmanned test flight of the Lunar Module (LM) in Earth orbit, launched on January 22, 1968, by a Saturn IB. The critical LM engines were successfully tested (though a computer programming error cut one test firing short), including an in-flight test of the second stage engine in "abort mode," in which the ascent engine is fired simultaneously with the jettison of the descent stage. This capability was made available, only to be used in the event of a critical problem on the Moon landing, such as running out of descent fuel, but was never needed.

Apollo 6 was the last unmanned Saturn V flight, launched on April 4, 1968. It carried a CSM and a Lunar Module Test Article near the mass of the Lunar Module for ballast. It was planned to achieve translunar injection, then after 5 minutes, use the Service Module engine to return the CM to Earth, thus demonstrating the Saturn V's ability to send the Apollo craft to the Moon, and a direct return-to-Earth abort capability. However, "pogo" vibrations caused premature shutdown of two second-stage engines, and failure of the third stage to re-light for the translunar injection. Instead, the Service Module engine was used as in Apollo 4 to raise the craft to a higher Earth orbit, and bring the CM back at a velocity midway between that of low Earth orbit and lunar return velocity. This mission was considered successful enough to launch men on the next Saturn V flight, since fixes for the vibration problem were identified.

Manned missions

Hasselblad camera used in the Apollo Program

The manned missions carried three astronauts, designated as Commander (CDR), 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 11-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.

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.

Plaque left on the Moon by Apollo 17

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 before stepping on the Moon during Apollo 11 mission^[31]

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.

Astronauts

Main article: List of Apollo astronauts

Forty-one astronauts were assigned to fly Apollo spacecraft; thirty-two of them were part of the Apollo program, with the rest not flying until the subsequent Skylab and Apollo-Soyuz programs. Twenty-four of the Apollo program astronauts left Earth’s orbit and flew around the Moon (Apollo 7 and Apollo 9 did not leave low Earth orbit).

Twelve of these astronauts walked on the Moon’s surface, and six of those drove a lunar rover on the Moon. While three astronauts flew to the Moon twice, none of them landed on the Moon more than once. The nine Apollo missions to the moon occurred between December of 1968 and December of 1972.

Apart from these twenty-four people who visited the Moon, no human being has gone beyond low Earth orbit. They have, therefore, been farther from the Earth than anyone else. They are also the only people to have directly viewed the far side of the Moon. The twelve who walked on the Moon are the only people ever to have set foot on an astronomical object other than the Earth. Of the twenty-four lunar astronauts taking part in the Moon missions, two went on to command a Skylab mission, one commanded Apollo-Soyuz, one flew as commander for shuttle approach and landing tests and two went on to command orbital shuttle missions. A total of twenty-four Apollo-era astronauts (as well as pre-Apollo astronaut John Glenn) flew the space shuttle.

Capsule Communicator

Mission rules specified that, in most circumstances, only one person in the Mission Control Center would communicate directly with the in-flight crew; 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.

Samples returned

Main article: Moon rock


The most famous of the Moon rocks recovered, the Genesis Rock, returned from Apollo 15.		Ferroan Anorthosite Moon rock, returned from Apollo 16.

The Apollo program returned 841.5 lb (381.7 kg) of rocks and other material from the Moon, much of which is stored at the Lunar Receiving Laboratory in Houston. The only sources of Moon rocks on Earth are those collected from the Apollo program, the former Soviet Union's Luna missions, and lunar meteorites.

The rocks collected from the Moon are extremely old compared to rocks found on Earth, as measured by radiometric dating techniques. They range in age from about 3.2 billion years old for the basaltic samples derived from the lunar mare, to about 4.6 billion years for samples derived from the highlands crust.^[32] As such, they represent samples from a very early period in the development of the Solar System that is largely missing from Earth. One important rock found during the Apollo Program was the Genesis Rock, retrieved by astronauts James Irwin and David Scott during the Apollo 15 mission. This rock, called anorthosite, is composed almost exclusively of the calcium-rich feldspar mineral anorthite, and is believed to be representative of the highland crust. A geochemical component called KREEP was discovered that has no known terrestrial counterpart. Together, KREEP and the anorthositic samples have been used to infer that the outer portion of the Moon was once completely molten (see lunar magma ocean).

Almost all the rocks show evidence for having been affected by impact processes. For instance, many samples appear to be pitted with micrometeoroid impact craters, something which is never seen on earth due to its thick atmosphere. Additionally, many show signs of being subjected to high pressure shock waves that are generated during impact events. Some of the returned samples are of impact melt, referring to materials that are melted near an impact crater. Finally, all samples returned from the Moon are highly brecciated as a result of being subjected to multiple impact events.

Analysis of composition of the lunar samples support the giant impact hypothesis, that the Moon was created through a "giant impact" of a large astronomical body with the Earth.^[33]

Program costs and cancellation

When President Kennedy first chartered the Moon landing program, a preliminary cost estimate of $7 billion was generated, but this proved an extremely unrealistic guess of what could not possibly be determined precisely, and James Webb used his administrator's judgement to change the estimate to $20 billion before giving it to Vice President Johnson.^[34]

Webb's estimate shocked many at the time (including the President), but ultimately proved to be reasonably accurate. In January 1969, NASA prepared an itemized estimate of the combined cost of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs. The total for Apollo came to $23.9 billion, itemized as follows:^[35]

Apollo spacecraft: $7,945.0 million
Saturn I launch vehicles: $767.1 million
Saturn IB launch vehicles: $1,131.2 million
Saturn V launch vehicles: $6,871.1 million
Launch vehicle engine development: $854.2 million
Mission support: $1,432.3 million
Tracking and data acquisition: $664.1 million
Ground facilities: $1,830.3 million
Operation of installations: $2,420.6 million

The final cost of project Apollo was reported to Congress as $25.4 billion in 1973.^[36] It took up the majority of NASA's budget while it was being developed. For example, in 1966 it accounted for about 60 percent of NASA's total $5.2 billion budget.^[37]

In 2009, NASA held a symposium on project costs which presented an estimate of the Apollo program costs in 2005 dollars as roughly $170 billion. This included all research and development costs; the procurement of 15 Saturn V rockets, 16 Command/Service Modules, 12 Lunar Modules, plus program support and management costs; construction expenses for facilities and their upgrading, and costs for flight operations. This was based on a Congressional Budget Office report, A Budgetary Analysis of NASA’s New Vision for Space, September 2004.^[34]

Canceled missions

Main article: Canceled Apollo missions

Originally three additional lunar landing missions had been planned, as Apollo 18 through Apollo 20. In light of the drastically shrinking NASA budget and the decision not to produce a second batch of Saturn Vs, these missions were canceled to make funds available for the development of the Space Shuttle, and to make their Apollo spacecraft and Saturn V launch vehicles available to the Skylab program. Only one of the remaining Saturn Vs was actually used to launch the Skylab orbital laboratory in 1973; the others became museum exhibits at the John F. Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, Florida, George C. Marshall Space Center in Huntsville, Alabama, Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

Apollo Applications Program

Main article: Apollo Applications Program

Following the success of the Apollo program, both NASA and its major contractors investigated several post-lunar applications for Apollo hardware. The Apollo Extension Series, later called the Apollo Applications Program, proposed up to 30 flights to Earth orbit. Many of these would use the space that the lunar module took up in the Saturn rocket to carry scientific equipment. Of all the plans, only two were implemented: the Skylab space station and the Apollo–Soyuz Test Project.

Skylab's fuselage was constructed from the second stage of a Saturn IB, and the station was equipped with the Apollo Telescope Mount, itself based on a lunar module. The station's three crews were ferried into orbit atop Saturn IBs, riding in CSMs; the station itself had been launched with a modified Saturn V. Skylab's last crew departed the station on February 8, 1974, and the station itself re-entered the atmosphere in 1979, by which time it had become the oldest operational Apollo-Saturn component.

The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project involved a docking in Earth orbit between a CSM and a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft from July 15 to July 24, 1975. NASA's next manned mission would not be until STS-1 in 1981.

Recent observations

“There the [Apollo 11] lunar module sits, parked just where it landed 40 years ago, as if it still really were 40 years ago and all the time since merely imaginary.” –The New York Times^[38]

In 2008, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's SELENE probe observed evidence of the halo surrounding the Apollo 15 lunar module blast crater while orbiting above the lunar surface.^[39] In 2009, NASA's robotic Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, while orbiting 50 kilometres (31 mi) above the moon, photographed the remnants of the Apollo program left on the lunar surface, and photographed each site where manned Apollo flights landed.^[40]^[41]

In a November 16, 2009 editorial, The New York Times opined:

[T]here’s something terribly wistful about these photographs of the Apollo landing sites. The detail is such that if Neil Armstrong were walking there now, we could make him out, make out his footsteps even, like the astronaut footpath clearly visible in the photos of the Apollo 14 site. Perhaps the wistfulness is caused by the sense of simple grandeur in those Apollo missions. Perhaps, too, it’s a reminder of the risk we all felt after the Eagle had landed — the possibility that it might be unable to lift off again and the astronauts would be stranded on the Moon. But it may also be that a photograph like this one is as close as we’re able to come to looking directly back into the human past.^[38]

Proposed future lunar landing missions, such as the Google Lunar X Prize, intend to record close-up images of the Apollo Lunar Modules and other artificial objects on the surface.^[42]

Legacy

Science and engineering

Further information: NASA spinoff technologies

The Apollo program, specifically the lunar landings, has been called the greatest technological achievement in human history.^[43]^[44] The program stimulated many areas of technology. The flight computer design used in both the lunar and command modules was, along with the Minuteman Missile System, the driving force behind early research into integrated circuits. The fuel cell developed for this program was the first practical fuel cell. Computer-controlled machining (CNC) was pioneered in fabricating Apollo structural components.

Cultural impact

"Everything that I ever knew - my life, my loved ones, the Navy - everything, the whole world was behind my thumb." –James Lovell

"We went to explore the Moon, and in fact discovered the Earth." –Eugene Cernan

The crew of Apollo 8, the first manned spacecraft to orbit the Moon, sent televised pictures of the Earth and the Moon back to Earth (left), and read from the creation story in the Biblical book of Genesis, on Christmas Eve, 1968, This was believed to be the most widely watched television broadcast until that time. The mission and Christmas provided an inspiring end to 1968, which had been a bad year for the U.S., marked by Vietnam War protests, race riots, and the assassinations of civil rights leader Martin Luther King and Senator Robert Kennedy.

An estimated one-fifth of the population of the world watched the live transmission of the first Apollo moonwalk.^[45]

One legacy of the Apollo program is the now-common view of Earth as a fragile, small planet, captured in photographs taken by the astronauts during the lunar missions. The most famous, taken by the Apollo 17 astronauts, is The Blue Marble (right). These photographs have also motivated some people toward environmentalism.^[46]

Many astronauts and cosmonauts have commented on the profound effects that seeing Earth from space has had on them;^[47] the 24 astronauts who traveled to the Moon are the only humans to have observed Earth from beyond low Earth orbit, and have traveled farther from Earth than anyone else to date.

The program succeeded in accomplishing one of President Kennedy's goals, which was to take on the Soviet Union in the space race and beat it by accomplishing a singular and significant achievement and thereby showcase the superiority of the capitalistic, free-market system as represented by the US. The Economist noted, however, the irony that in order to achieve the goal the Apollo program was successful by organizing tremendous public resources within a vast, centralized bureaucracy under government direction.^[48]

Apollo 11 broadcast data restoration project

As part of Apollo 11's 40th anniversary in 2009, NASA spearheaded an effort to digitally restore the existing videotapes of the mission's live televised moonwalk.^[49] After an exhaustive three-year search for missing tapes of the original video of the Apollo 11 moonwalk, NASA concluded the data tapes had more than likely been accidentally erased.^[50]

We're all saddened that they're not there. We all wish we had 20-20 hindsight. I don't think anyone in the NASA organization did anything wrong, I think it slipped through the cracks, and nobody's happy about it.

—Dick Nafzger, TV Specialist, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center^[50]

The Moon landing data was recorded by a special Apollo TV camera which recorded in a format incompatible with broadcast TV. This resulted in lunar footage that had to be converted for the live television broadcast and stored on magnetic telemetry tapes. During the following years, a magnetic tape shortage prompted NASA to remove massive numbers of magnetic tapes from the National Archives and Records Administration to be recorded over with newer satellite data. Stan Lebar, who designed and built the lunar camera at Westinghouse Electric Corporation, also worked with Nafzger to try to locate the missing tapes.^[50]

So I don't believe that the tapes exist today at all. It was a hard thing to accept. But there was just an overwhelming amount of evidence that led us to believe that they just don't exist anymore. And you have to accept reality.

—Stan Lebar, Lunar Camera Designer, Westinghouse Electric Corporation^[50]

With a budget of $230,000, the surviving original lunar broadcast data from Apollo 11 was compiled by Nafzger and assigned to Lowry Digital for restoration. The video was processed to remove random noise and camera shake without destroying historical legitimacy.^[51] The images were from tapes in Australia, the CBS News archive, and kinescope recordings made at Johnson Space Center. The restored video, remaining in black and white, contains conservative digital enhancements and did not include sound quality improvements.^[51]

Documentaries

Numerous documentary films cover the Apollo program and the space race, including:

Moonwalk One (1970)
For All Mankind (1989)
Moon Shot (documentary commemorating 25 years since the landings) (1994)
From the Earth to the Moon (TV miniseries) (1998)
Moon from the BBC miniseries The Planets (1999)
Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon 3D (2005)
In the Shadow of the Moon (2007)
When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions (miniseries) (2008)
James May on the Moon (documentary commemorating 40 years since the landings) (2009)
NASA's Story

Notes

^ ^a ^b Kennedy, John F."Special Message to the Congress on Urgent National Needs". jfklibrary.org, May 25, 1961.
^ ^a ^b Murray and Cox, Apollo, pp. 16-17.
^ 30th Anniversary of Apollo 11, Manned Apollo Missions. NASA, 1999.
^ Murray and Cox, Apollo, p. 55.
^ http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/about/history/apollo_press_release.html
^ Murray and Cox, Apollo, p. 60.
^ Beschloss, 'Kennedy and the Decision to Go to the Moon,' in Launius and McCurdy, eds., Spaceflight and the Myth of Presidential Leadership.
^ Sidey, John F. Kennedy, pp. 117-118.
^ Beschloss, 'Kennedy and the Decision to Go to the Moon', p. 55.
^ "Discussion of Soviet Man-in-Space Shot," Hearing before the Committee on Science and Astronautics, U.S. House of Representatives, 87th Congress, First Session, April 13, 1961.
^ Sidey, John F. Kennedy, p. 114
^ Kennedy to Johnson, "Memorandum for Vice President," April 20, 1961.
^ ^a ^b Johnson to Kennedy, "Evaluation of Space Program," April 28, 1961.
^ Sietzen, Frank. "Soviets Planned to Accept JFK’s Joint Lunar Mission Offer". "SpaceCast News Service" Washington DC. http://www.spacedaily.com/news/russia-97h.html. Retrieved October 2, 1997.
^ NASA Langley Research Center's Contributions to the Apollo Program. NASA Langley Research Center.
^ John F. Kennedy,"Address at Rice University on the Nation's Space Effort"
^ Brooks, Grimwood and Swenson, Chariots for Apollo, p. 71.
^ Hansen, Enchanted Rendezvous, p 21
^ Hansen, Enchanted Rendezvous, p 24
^ Hansen, Enchanted Rendezvous, p. 27.
^ Garber, Steve (February 3, 2003). "NASA Apollo Mission Apollo-1 -- Phillips Report". NASA History Office. http://history.nasa.gov/Apollo204/phillip1.html. Retrieved April 14, 2010.
^ Report of the Apollo 204 Review Board, Findings and Recommendations
^ Gray, Mike. "Angle of Attack: Harrison Storms and the Race to the Moon", Penguin Books (Non-Classics) (June 1, 1994). ISBN 014023280X
^ Chariots for Apollo, Ch 7-4
^ Saturn IB News Reference: Saturn IB Design Features
^ Saturn V News Reference: First Stage Fact Sheet
^ Saturn V News Reference: Second Stage Fact Sheet
^ Saturn V News Reference: Third Stage Fact Sheet
^ Murray and Cox, Apollo, p. 238.
^ Murray and Cox, Apollo, p. 248.
^ See Neil Armstrong#First Moon walk for more information.
^ James Papike, Grahm Ryder, and Charles Shearer (1998). "Lunar Samples". Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry 36: 5.1–5.234.
^ Burrows, William E. (1999). This New Ocean: The Story of the First Space Age. Modern Library. p. 431. ISBN 0375754857. OCLC 42136309.
^ ^a ^b Butts, Glenn; Linton, Kent (April 28, 2009). "The Joint Confidence Level Paradox: A History of Denial, 2009 NASA Cost Symposium". pp. 25–26. http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/nexgen/Nexgen_Downloads/Butts_NASA's_Joint_Cost-Schedule_Paradox_-_A_History_of_Denial.pdf
^ Wilford, John Noble (July 1969). We Reach the Moon. New York: Bantam Books. p. 67.
^ House, Subcommittee on Manned Space Flight of the Committee on Science and Astronautics, 1974 NASA Authorization, Hearings on H.R. 4567, 93/2, Part 2, p. 1271.
^ Hoagland, J. H.; Skolnikoff, E. B.. "The World Wide Spread of Space Technology". NASA Technical Reports Server. NASA. http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19690013030. Retrieved 6 October 2011.
^ ^a ^b "The Human Moon". The New York Times. November 16, 2009. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/17/opinion/17tue4.html. Retrieved November 19, 2009.
^ "The "halo" area around Apollo 15 landing site observed by Terrain Camera on SELENE(KAGUYA)" (Press release). Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. May 20, 2008. http://www.jaxa.jp/press/2008/05/20080520_kaguya_e.html. Retrieved November 19, 2009.
^ "LRO Sees Apollo Landing Sites". NASA. July 17, 2009. http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/multimedia/lroimages/apollosites.html. Retrieved November 19, 2009.
^ "Apollo Landing Sites Revisited". NASA. http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/revisited/index.html. Retrieved November 19, 2009.
^ "Rules & Guidelines". X PRIZE Foundation. November 20, 2008. http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/lunar/about-the-prize/rules-and-guidelines. Retrieved November 19, 2009.
^ 30th Anniversary of Apollo 11, NASA, 1999.
^ 30th Anniversary of Apollo 11. BBC, 23 July 1999.
^ Burrows, William E. (1999). This New Ocean: The Story of the First Space Age. Modern Library. p. 429. ISBN 0375754857. OCLC 42136309.
^ Al Gore (March 17, 2007). "An Inconvenient Truth Transcript". Politics Blog - a reproduction of the film's transcript. http://forumpolitics.com/blogs/2007/03/17/an-inconvient-truth-transcript/. Retrieved July 29, 2007.
^ The Overview Effect: Space Exploration and Human Evolution
^ The Economist, "Lexington: Apollo plus 50", 21 May 2011, p. 36.
^ http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/40th/
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "Houston, We Erased The Apollo 11 Tapes". National Public Radio, July 16, 2009.
^ ^a ^b Borenstein, Seth for AP. "NASA lost Moon footage, but Hollywood restores it". Yahoo news, July 16, 2009.

References

"Discussion of Soviet Man-in-Space Shot," Hearing before the Committee on Science and Astronautics, U.S. House of Representatives, 87th Congress, First Session, April 13, 1961.
Hansen, James R. (1995) (PDF). Enchanted Rendezvous: John C. Houbolt and the Genesis of the Lunar-Orbit Rendezvous Concept. NASA. http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19960014824_1996007704.pdf. Retrieved December 28, 2008.
Launius, Roger; Howard McCurdy (1997). Spaceflight and the Myth of Presidential Leadership. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Murray, Charles; Catherine Bly Cox (1989). Apollo: The Race to the Moon. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0-671-61101-1. OCLC 19589707.
Papike, James; Graham Ryder and Charles Shearer (1998). "Lunar Samples". Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry 36: 5.1–5.234.
Sidey, Hugh (1963). John F. Kennedy, President. New York: Atheneum.
Swenson, Jr., Loyd S.; Courtney G Brooks and James M. Grimwood (1979). Chariots for Apollo: A History of Manned Lunar Spacecraft. NASA. http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4205/contents.html.

External links

Official Apollo program website
Apollo photo gallery at NASA Human Spaceflight website (includes videos/animations)
Audio recording and transcript of President John F. Kennedy, NASA administrator James Webb et al. discussing the Apollo agenda (White House Cabinet Room, November 21, 1962)
U.S. Spaceflight History- Apollo Program
Apollo Image Atlas almost 25,000 lunar images, Lunar and Planetary Institute
Project Apollo at NASA History Division
The Apollo Lunar Surface Journal
How Apollo Has Influenced Society
The Apollo Flight Journal
Project Apollo Drawings and Technical Diagrams
Apollo Program Summary Report (Technical)
The Apollo Program (National Air and Space Museum)
Apollo 35th Anniversary Interactive Feature (in Flash)
Exploring the Moon: Apollo Missions
Apollo Archive - large repository of information about the Apollo program.
Apollo Flight Film Archive - repository of scanned Apollo flight film (in high resolution).
NASA History Series Publications (many of which are on-line)
Apollo's Contributions to Society

v · d · eMissions of the Apollo program

Rocket tests	SA-1 · SA-2 · SA-3 · SA-4 · SA-5 · AS-203

Abort tests	QTV · Pad Abort Test-1 · A-001 · A-002 · A-003 · Pad Abort Test-2 · A-004

Boilerplate tests	A-101 · A-102 · A-103 · A-104 · A-105

Unmanned missions	AS-201 · AS-202 · Apollo 4 · Apollo 5 · Apollo 6 · Skylab 1

Low Earth orbit missions	Apollo 7 · Apollo 9 · Skylab 2 · Skylab 3 · Skylab 4 · Apollo-Soyuz Test Project

Lunar orbit missions	Apollo 8 · Apollo 10

Lunar landing missions	Apollo 11 · Apollo 12 · Apollo 14 · Apollo 15 · Apollo 16 · Apollo 17

Failed missions	Apollo 1 (AS-204) · Apollo 13

List of missions · Mission Types · Canceled missions

v · d · eUnited States human spaceflight programs

Active	ISS (joint)

Previous	X-15 (suborbital) · Mercury · Gemini · Apollo · Skylab · Apollo-Soyuz (with USSR) · Space Shuttle · Shuttle-Mir (with Russia)

Canceled	MISS · Orion (nuclear) · Dyna-Soar · Manned Orbiting Laboratory · National Aero-Space Plane · Space Station Freedom (now ISS) · Orbital Space Plane · Project Constellation

v · d · eNASA planetary exploration programs

Active	Explorer · Small Explorer · Voyager · Discovery · New Frontiers · Flagship · Mars Exploration Rover

Completed	Pioneer · Mariner · Lunar Orbiter · Ranger · Surveyor · Apollo · Viking · Planetary Observer · Mariner Mark II · MESUR · Mars Surveyor '98 · Mars Scout

Cancelled	Planetary Grand Tour · Voyager (Mars) · Project Prometheus · Constellation · New Millennium

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Policy and history

NACA (1915) · National Aeronautics and Space Act (1958) · Paine (1986) · Rogers (1986) · Ride (1987) · Space Exploration Initiative (1989) · Augustine (1990) · U.S. National Space Policy (1996) · CFUSAI (2002) · CAIB (2003) · Vision for Space Exploration (2004) · Aldridge (2004) · Augustine (2009)
General: Space Race · Administrators · Chief Scientist · Astronaut Corps · Budget · Technology spin-offs · NASA TV

Robotic programs

Past	Hitchhiker · Mariner · Mariner Mark II · MESUR · Mars Surveyor '98 · New Millennium · Lunar Orbiter · Pioneer · Planetary Observer · Ranger · Surveyor · Viking · Project Prometheus

Current	Living With a Star · Lunar Precursor Robotic Program · Earth Observing System · Great Observatories program · Explorer · Small explorer · Voyager (unofficial album) · Discovery · New Frontiers · Mars Exploration Rover · Mars Scout

Human spaceflight
programs

Past	X-15 (suborbital) · Mercury · Gemini · Apollo · Apollo–Soyuz Test Project (with USSR) · Skylab · Shuttle–Mir (with Russia) · Space Shuttle program · Constellation program

Current	International Space Station program

Future/planned	Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) · Commercial Crew Development (CCDev)

Individual
featured missions
(human and robotic)

Past	COBE · Apollo 11 · Mercury 3 · Mercury 6 · Magellan · Pioneer 10/11 · Voyager 1/2 · Galileo · WMAP · WISE · Space Shuttle

Currently operating	MRO · Mars Odyssey · MESSENGER · Dawn · New Horizons · Kepler · International Space Station · Hubble Space Telescope · Spitzer · RHESSI · SWIFT · GALEX · THEMIS · Mars Exploration Rover · Cassini · GOES 14 · Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter · GOES 15 · SDO · Aquarius · Juno · GRAIL

Future	NuSTAR · NPP · James Webb Space Telescope · MAVEN · EJSM · JDEM · RBSP · MSL · LISA · IXO

Space Comm and Nav (SCaN)

Space Network · Near Earth Network · Deep Space Network (Goldstone · Madrid · Canberra)

NASA categories
and lists

NASA personnel · NASA programs · NASA probes · NASA images · NASA Tweetup · NASA
List of NASA Astronaut Groups · List of astronauts by selection · List of NASA aircraft · List of NASA missions · List of NASA contractors

Spaceflight

General

Astrodynamics · History (Accidents and incidents · Records · Space Race)

Applications

Earth observation satellites (Spy satellites · Weather satellites) · Private spaceflight · Satellite navigation · Space archaeology · Space architecture · Space colonization · Space exploration · Space medicine · Space tourism

Human spaceflight

General	Astronaut · Life support system (Extra-vehicular activity · Space suit)

Hazards	Adaptation (Space adaptation syndrome) · Cosmic radiation · Survival · Weather · Weightlessness

Major projects	Apollo · Constellation · Gemini · International Space Station · Mercury · Mir · Shenzhou · Soyuz · Space Shuttle · Voskhod · Vostok

Spacecraft

Launch vehicle · Robotic spacecraft · Rocket · Spacecraft propulsion · Spaceplane

Destinations

Intergalactic · Interplanetary · Interstellar · Orbital (Geocentric · Geosynchronous) · Sub-orbital

Space launch

Direct ascent · Escape velocity · Expendable and reusable launch systems · Launch pad · Non-rocket spacelaunch · Spaceport

Space agencies

CNES · CNSA · ESA · JAXA · NASA · RKA · more...

v · d · eThe Moon

Physical features	Internal structure Gravity field Topography Magnetic field Atmosphere Ion tail Moonlight

Orbit	Orbit of the Moon Phases Solar eclipse Lunar eclipse Tide

Lunar surface	Selenography Near side Far side Lunar mare (List) Craters (List) Mountains Valleys South Pole – Aitken basin Shackleton crater Water Soil Peak of eternal light Space weathering Transient lunar phenomenon

Lunar science	Geology (timescale) Giant impact hypothesis Moon rocks Lunar meteorites KREEP ALSEP Lunar laser ranging Late Heavy Bombardment Observing the Moon

Exploration	Exploration of the Moon Apollo program Robotic exploration Future missions Lunar colonization Moon Landing hoax accusations

Other topics	Calendar Month The Moon in art and literature The Moon in mythology Moon illusion Lunar effect Craters named after people Man in the Moon

See also Solar System Natural satellite

Categories:

Human spaceflight programmes
Apollo program
Exploration of the Moon
Engineering projects
1960s in the United States
1970s in the United States

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Apollo program — the US space programme to put men on the moon. It was begun in 1961 by President John F Kennedy and achieved its aim on 20 July 1969 when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon during the Apollo 11 flight. * * * ▪ space program Moon… … Universalium
Apollo program — noun a program of space flights undertaken by US to land a man on the Moon the first lunar landing was achieved by the Apollo program on July 20, 1969 • Instance Hypernyms: ↑space program … Useful english dictionary
Apollo Program — Apollo Pro|gram the US government space programme to send people to the moon, which succeeded in 1969 when the Apollo 11 spacecraft landed on the moon →↑Armstrong, Neil … Dictionary of contemporary English
Apollo program missing tapes — The Apollo missing tapes are the missing original recordings of the transmissions broadcast during the Apollo 11 moonwalk. The tapes included Slow scan television (SSTV) and telemetry data. Videotapes and kinescopes of the Apollo 11 moonwalk made … Wikipedia
(the) Apollo program — the Apollo program [the Apollo program] the US space programme to put people on the moon. It was begun in 1961 by President John F ↑Kennedy and achieved its aim on 20 July 1969 when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon during the… … Useful english dictionary
Apollo Moon Landing hoax conspiracy theories — are claims that some or all elements of the Apollo Moon landings were faked by NASA and possibly members of other involved organizations. Some groups and individuals have advanced various theories which tend, to varying degrees, to include the… … Wikipedia
Apollo Guidance Computer — and DSKY Invented by MIT Instrumentation Laboratory Manufacturer Raytheon Introduced August 1966 … Wikipedia
Apollo Command/Service Module — Apollo CSM The Apollo 15 CSM in lunar orbit Description Role: Earth and Lunar Orbit Crew: 3; CDR, CM pilot, LM pilot Dimensions Height: 36.2 ft 11.03 m … Wikipedia
Apollo/Skylab A7L — Apollo 11 A7L space suit worn by Buzz Aldrin, and another worn by photographer Neil Armstrong in the visor reflection. The A7L Apollo Skylab spacesuit is the primary pressure suit worn by NASA astronauts for Project Apollo, the three manned… … Wikipedia
Apollo 5 — Données de la mission Vaisseau Module lunaire Fusée Saturn IB Équipage vol inhabité. Date de lancement 22 janvier&# … Wikipédia en Français

Academic Dictionaries and Encyclopedias

Apollo program

Contents

Background

Choosing a mission mode