Apollo Space Program in the 1960s

The space program that put a man on the Moon. On July 20, 1969, the world watched on television as astronauts Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin walked the Moon’s surface, conducted scientific experiments, and collected samples.

Origins and History

In January, 1961, when John F. Kennedy was inaugurated president of the United States, the Cold War, a period of confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union, was at its peak. During his campaign, Kennedy had charged that the Soviet Union was establishing an image of world leadership and a preeminence in science as U.S. prestige throughout the world was declining.

Nowhere was this decline more evident than in the race to explore space. The Soviet Union had launched the world’s first artificial satellite on October 4, 1957. The first U.S. attempt, in December, 1957, was a widely publicized failure: The Vanguard rocket exploded after rising only a few feet. The Soviet Union launched the first spacecraft to orbit the sun in January, 1959, and the first spacecraft to orbit the Moon and return photographs of its unseen far side in October, 1959. Four U.S. efforts to reach the Moon during 1958 all failed.

The Soviet Union launched the world’s first space explorer, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, on April 12, 1961, less than three months after Kennedy’s inauguration. Kennedy was seeking a dramatic project that would enhance U.S. prestige and demonstrate the nation’s leadership in the space race. On May 25, 1961, in an address to Congress, Kennedy announced his objective to land a man on the Moon and return him safely to Earth before the end of the decade.

The Program

To accomplish Kennedy’s goal, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) established the Apollo lunar landing program. This program put twenty-five billion dollars into the economy during the next ten years. Corporations throughout the United States were awarded contracts to develop two new rockets, the Saturn 1B and the Saturn 5, and three new spacecraft, the command, service, and lunar modules.

NASA’s plan called for three astronauts to ride into orbit in the command module, a pressurized 11.4-foot-tall cone weighing 5.5 tons, which would sit atop the 363-foot-tall Saturn 5 rocket. The service module, a 15.4-foot-long cylinder weighing 23 tons, was attached to the rear of the command module. The service module carried fuel cells to generate electricity, supplies of oxygen and water, and a large rocket engine to slow the spacecraft for capture into lunar orbit. The lunar module, housed below the service module, was linked to the front end of the command module by a rendezvous and docking maneuver after the spacecraft left Earth orbit. Two astronauts would ride the lunar module to the surface of the Moon, abandon its lower half on the Moon, and ride the upper half back into lunar orbit. There they would rendezvous with the orbiting command module for the trip back to Earth.

Testing

In the early 1960’s, when these plans were developed, no one had ever attempted the difficult maneuvers for rendezvous and docking of two spacecraft. The Gemini program in the mid-1960’s served as a bridge between the United States’ “first man-in-space” program, Project Mercury, and Apollo. Gemini spacecraft, each carrying a crew of two astronauts, provided the opportunity to practice docking techniques. At the same time, unmanned Surveyor spacecraft were landing on the Moon, performing engineering tests vital to Apollo, and Lunar Orbiter spacecraft mapped potential landing sites.

The first tests of the Apollo spacecraft were conducted in Earth orbit, to permit a quick return if something went wrong. Tragedy struck the Apollo program on January 27, 1967, a few days before the first manned Apollo launch was scheduled. Three astronauts, Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom, Edward H. White, and Roger B. Chaffee, were killed by a fire in their Apollo 1 capsule during a flight simulation on the ground. A review panel recommended redesigning the Apollo spacecraft to make it more fire resistant. These changes delayed the first manned flight until October 11, 1968, when Apollo 7 was launched into Earth orbit by a Saturn 1B. It carried Walter M. Schirra, Donn F. Eisele, and Walter Cunningham on an eleven-day mission to test the systems of the command and service modules.

On December 21, 1968, a Saturn 5 rocket carried three astronauts, Frank Borman, James A. Lovell, and William A. Anders, on a trip to the moon on Apollo 8. On Christmas Eve, they fired the rocket in the service module, orbited the Moon for twenty hours, then returned to Earth.

Apollo 9, launched on March 3, 1969, carried astronauts James A. McDivitt, David R. Scott, and Russell L. Schweickart on a mission to test the lunar module. Following the pattern of testing each new spacecraft in Earth orbit, this ten-day, Earth-orbital mission involved a thorough checkout of all the lunar module systems, including repeated docking maneuvers between the command and lunar modules.

Apollo 10 carried astronauts Thomas P. Stafford, Eugene A. Cernan, and John W. Young to the Moon in a rehearsal for the landing mission. On May 22, 1969, Stafford and Cernan separated the lunar module from the command module, fired the engine on the lunar module, and descended to within nine miles of the surface of the Moon. However, their mission was a test of the lunar module, and they were not permitted to make the final engine burn, which would have taken them to the Moon’s surface.

The Lunar Landing

Apollo 11 lifted off from Cape Kennedy, Florida, on July 16, 1969, carrying astronauts Neil A. Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins on the first lunar landing mission. Even as Apollo 11 flew toward the Moon, the race was not over. The Soviet Union launched an unmanned spacecraft, Luna 15, to return samples of the Moon, in an attempt to beat the Apollo 11 astronauts in this task. However, Luna 15 crashed onto the lunar surface on July 21, 1969.

The Apollo 11 lunar module, named Eagle, separated from the command module Columbia, where astronaut Collins remained. As the Eagle’s fuel supply neared the critical limit, Armstrong piloted it to a landing in the Sea of Tranquility at 4:17 p.m. eastern standard time on July 20, 1969. Armstrong reported the landing with the words, “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.” At 10:56 p.m., Armstrong stepped onto the lunar surface, becoming the first human to set foot on another celestial body. Aldrin soon followed, and they planted a United States flag on the Moon, performed a series of scientific experiments, and collected almost fifty-four pounds of rock and soil samples. They left the Moon’s surface on July 21, and Eagle docked with Columbia, which had remained in lunar orbit. They landed in the Pacific Ocean, were greeted by President Richard M. Nixon, and placed in quarantine for twenty-one days to protect Earth from any lunar microorganisms.

Apollo 12, carrying astronauts Charles “Pete” Conrad, Alan L. Bean, and Richard F. Gordon, was hit by lightning fifty seconds after its November 14, 1969, liftoff. Despite a momentary power failure, the astronauts continued on, landing in the Ocean of Storms, only six hundred feet from an unmanned Surveyor spacecraft. They performed a series of scientific experiments, then returned to Earth with pieces of the Surveyor and seventy-five pounds of lunar rocks.

Impact

The Apollo program accomplished Kennedy’s objective of restoring the prestige of the United States. In 1968, the Apollo 8 astronauts broadcast a Christmas message to the world as they orbited the moon. In 1969, footage of astronaut Armstrong taking his first step onto the surface of the Moon was televised live and viewed around the world. Scientific experiments conducted by the Apollo astronauts, as well as research on the lunar rocks and soil returned to Earth, provided information on the geology and history of the Moon.

Technology developed in support of Apollo has affected daily life. Smaller and lighter computers, created to navigate spacecraft, led to the desktop personal computers of the 1980’s. Miniature video cameras and monitors devised for Apollo led to handheld video cameras and pocket-sized televisions. Sensors, designed to monitor the astronauts’ physical condition, are now used in intensive care units in hospitals.

Subsequent Events

The Apollo program continued into the 1970’s. The flight of Apollo 13 almost ended in disaster when an oxygen tank in the command module exploded. Apollo 14 and Apollo 15, launched in 1971, and Apollo 16 and Apollo 17, in 1972, brought the total number of astronauts who walked on the moon to twelve. The Saturn launch vehicles and the Apollo spacecraft were used in two additional projects. Skylab, the first U.S. space station, was launched by a Saturn 5 on May 15, 1973. During the next nine months, three crews of three astronauts each were launched to Skylab in Apollo capsules. They conducted scientific and medical experiments in space. The first cooperative space mission between the United States and the Soviet Union, the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, linked an Apollo spacecraft carrying three astronauts with the Soyuz 19 spacecraft, carrying two cosmonauts, in 1975.

Additional Information

Apollo 11 astronaut Collins provides a firsthand account in Carrying the Fire: An Astronaut’s Journeys (1974). John Wilford documents the Apollo program in We Reach the Moon (1969), while John Logston describes the politics behind Apollo in The Decision to Go to the Moon (1970). Andrew Chalkin’s A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts (1994) places the project in its historical context.