Page 2 - The Appollo Story

~-----------1 The Apollo Story 1------------

Introduction
The Apollo program was the United States spaceflight effort which landed the first humans on Earth's
Moon. Conceived during the Eisenhower administration and conducted by the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration (NASA), Apollo began in earnest after President John F. Kennedy's 1961 address
to Congress declaring his belief in a national goal of landing a man on the Moon by the end of the dec-
ade in a competition with the Soviet Union for supremacy in space.

This goal was first accomplished during the Apollo 11 mission on July 20, 1969 when astronauts Neil
Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed, while Michael Collins remained in lunar orbit.

Six other Apollo missions, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, and 17 achieved this goal. Apollo 7 tested the Command
Module, and Apollo 9 tested both the Command Module and Lunar Module, both were Earth orbiting
missions. Apollo 8 and Apollo 10 tested various components while orbiting the Moon, and returned pho-
tography of the lunar surface. Apollo 13 did not land on the lunar surface due to a malfunction, but dur-
ing the brief orbit around the Moon, the crew was able to collect photographs. The six missions that
landed on the Moon returned a wealth of scientific data and almost 400 kilograms of lunar samples. Ex-
periments included soil mechanics, meteoroids, seismic, heat flow, lunar ranging, magnetic fields, and
solar wind experiments.

MANNED MISSIONS

Intended as the first manned flight of Apollo, the three astronauts died in a capsule fire on the launch
pad - known retrospectively as Apollo 1

Earth Orbit: Apollo 7 Apollo 9

Lunar Orbit: Apollo 8 Apollo 10

Lunar Swingby: Apollo 13

Lunar Landing: Apollo 11 Apollo 12
Apollo 14 Apollo 15
Apollo 16 Apollo 17

Acknowledgements: NASA
Wikipedia
One Small Step by David Whitehouse
How Apollo Flew To The Moon by W. David Woods along with parts of the
Foreword by astronaut David R. Scott - Commander of Apollo 15
A special acknowledgement to John Christopher for The Apollo Story which I
have used extensively for this display, especially for the Apollo manned mis-
sions.
Note: Throughout this presentation I have used the American spellings of Program and
Center, as this seemed appropriate to the subject.