Project Apollo History

"That is one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind," Neil Armstrong's famous words that echoed from the moon. The Apollo program was aimed at landing a man and returning him back to Earth, but several other goals were also part of the program these included: to establish technology to meet other national interests in space, to carry out a program to study the surface of the moon, to put the United States in the lead of the space race, and to develop man's ability to work in the lunar environment. The Apollo spacecraft featured an arsenal of power that came from the Saturn IB rockets for Earth-orbital flights and the gigantic Saturn V for the lunar flights. The Apollo spacecraft was broken down into three man components: the Command Module, the Service Module, and the Lunar Module. The Command Module (CM) acted as the crew quarters and flight control section, while the Service Module (SM) provided the propulsion and support systems with the Lunar Module (LM) was the two-man ferry that went to the lunar surface, supported the crew while on the surface, and returned the crew to the Command and Service Modules (CSM). The Apollo program is well remember and written in the history books for the famous landing of Apollo 11 and the first steps of man walking on another world, but the program did not go along without its terrible and tragic hardships. On January 27, 1967, the three-man crew of AS-204, which was scheduled to be the first manned test launch of the Apollo program, experienced a fire in the Command Module while the were testing the systems on the pad. This event killed the crew as the fire quickly engulfed the spacecraft and the crew could not escape the the deadly smoke. This tragedy crippled the United Space space program and threaten to end the attempt to put a man on the moon. About an year later the program started up again, after many improvements were made to the vehicles, which included mixing the atmosphere and installing a fast opening safety hatch. The crew of Apollo 13 almost saw death as their cryogenic oxygen tank blew up and spewed all their vital cargo out into the vast of space and the crew used every resource to get their crippled spacecraft back to safety on the ground of Earth. Finally on July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first person to set foot on an alien world as he climbed out and walked on the lunar surface. In many ways the Apollo program was the main drama of the decade as man scrambled to land on the moon and explore another world, while the other extreme of trying to save a crew that had the cards drawn against them.

Unmanned Missions

AS-201 (AS-201)- Demonstrate structural integrity and compatibility of launch vehicle and confirm launch loads. Demonstrate separation of first and second stages of Saturn, LES and boost protective cover from CSM, CSM from instrument unit/spacecraft/lunar module (LM) adapter, and CM from SM. Verify operations of Saturn propulsion, guidance and control, and electrical subsystems. Verify operation of spacecraft subsystems and adequacy of heat shield for reentry from low earth orbit. Evaluate emergency detection system in open-loop configuration. Evaluate heat shield ablator at high reentry rates (Not Achieved due to loss of data during maximum heating). Demonstrate operation of mission support facilities. Must tests were successful.

AS-203 (AS-203)- Evaluate performance on S-IVB instrument unit stage under orbital conditions and obtain flight information on venting and chill-down systems, fluid dynamics and heat transfer of propellant tanks, attitude and thermal control system, launch vehicle guidance, and checkout in orbit. Mission was successful.

AS-202 (AS-202)- Demonstrate structural integrity and compatibility of launch vehicle and confirm launch loads. Demonstrate separation of first and second stages of Saturn, LES and boost protective cover from CSM, CSM from instrument unit/spacecraft/lunar module (LM) adapter, and CM from SM. Verify operations of Saturn propulsion, guidance and control, and electrical subsystems. Verify operation of spacecraft subsystems and adequacy of heat shield for reentry from low earth orbit. Evaluate emergency detection system in open-loop configuration. Evaluate heat shield ablator at high reentry rates. Demonstrate operation of mission support facilities. All objectives Achieved.

AS-501 (Apollo 4)- Demonstrate structural and thermal integrity and compatibility of launch vehicle and spacecraft; confirm launch loads and dynamic characteristics. Verify operation of command module heat shield (adequacy of Block II design for reentry at lunar return conditions), service propulsion system (SPS; including no ullage start), and selective subsystems. Evaluate performance of emergency detection system in open-loop configuration. Demonstrate mission support facilities and operations needed for launch, mission conduct, and CM recovery. All mission objectives were achieved.

AS-204 (Apollo 5)- Verify operation of Lunar Module ascent and descent propulsion systems. Evaluate Lunar Module staging. Evaluate S-IVB instrument unit performance. Mission Objectives were accomplished.

AS-205 (Apollo 6)- Demonstrate structure and thermal integrity and compatibility of launch vehicle and spacecraft; confirm launch loads and dynamic characteristics. Demonstrate separation of launch vehicle stages. Evaluate performance of emergency detection system in closed-loop configuration. Verify operation of Saturn V propulsion, guidance and control, and electrical systems. (Not Achieved because of early cutoff of two of the S-II stage J-2 engines and failure of S-IVB J-2 engine to restart. Demonstrate performance of mission support facilities. Most mission objectives were fulfilled.

Manned Missions

AS-204 (Apollo 1)- Crew of Virgil I. Grissom, Edward H. White II, and Roger B. Chaffee. Tragedy struck on the launch pad during a preflight test for Apollo 204 (AS-204), which was scheduled to be the first Apollo manned mission, and would have been launched on February 21, 1967. Astronauts Virgil Grissom, Edward White, and Roger Chaffee lost their lives when a fire swept through the Command Module (CM). The exhaustive investigation of the fire and extensive reworking of the CMs postponed any manned launch until NASA officials cleared the CM for manned flight. Saturn 1B schedules were suspended for nearly a year, and the launch vehicle that finally bore the designation AS-204 carried a Lunar Module (LM) as the payload, not the Apollo CM. The missions of AS-201 and AS-202 with Apollo spacecraft aboard had been unofficially known as Apollo 1 and Apollo 2 missions (AS-203 carried only the aerodynamic nose cone). In the spring of 1967, NASA's Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight, Dr. George E. Mueller, announced that the mission originally scheduled for Grissom, White and Chaffee would be known as Apollo 1, and said that the first Saturn V launch, scheduled for November 1967, would be known as Apollo 4.

AS-205 (Apollo 7)- Crew consisted of Commander Walter M. Schirra, Jr., CSM Pilot Donn F. Eisele, and Pilot Walter R. Cunningham. Launch took place on October 11, 1968 at 11:02:45 A.M. EDT. The primary objectives for the Apollo 7 engineering test flight, were simple: "Demonstrate CSM/crew performance; demonstrate crew/space vehicle/mission support facilities performance during a manned CSM mission; demonstrate CSM rendezvous capability." The Apollo vehicle and the CSM performed superbly. Durability was shown for 10.8 days - longer than a journey to the Moon and back. With few exceptions, the other systems in the spacecraft operated as they should. Occasionally, one of the three fuel cells supplying electricity to the craft developed some unwanted high temperatures, but load-sharing hookups among the cells prevented any power shortage. The duration of the space-flight mission was 10 days and 20 hours, 52 minutes, and 31 seconds. The Apollo 7 crew carried the first live TV broadcast from space.

AS-503 (Apollo 8)- Crew consisted of Commander Frank Borman, CSM Pilot James A. Lovell, Jr., and Pilot William A. Anders. Apollo 8 launched on December 21, 1968 at 7:51:00 A.M. EDT with the mission to demonstrate crew/space vehicle/mission support facilities during manned Saturn V/CSM mission. Demonstrate translunar injection, CSM navigation, communications, and midcourse corrections. Assess CSM consumables and passive thermal control. Demonstrate CSM performance in cislunar and lunar orbit environment. Demonstrate communications and tracking at lunar distances. Return high-resolution photographs of proposed Apollo landing sites and locations of scientific interest. All the mission objectives were achieved. Apollo 8 came home on December 27, 1968 at 10:52 A.M. EDT after logging 6 days, 3 hours, 0 minutes, and 42 seconds. Apollo 8 was the first crew to orbit the moon.

AS-504 (Apollo 9)- Crew consisted of Commander James A. McDivitt, CSM Pilot David R. Scott, and LM Pilot Russell L. Schweickart. The crew rocketed into space on March 3, 1969 at 11:00:00 A.M. EDT and landed on March 13, 1969 at 12:01 P.M. EDT. Demonstrate crew/space vehicle/mission support facilities during manned Saturn V/CSM/LM mission. Demonstrate LM/crew performance. Demonstrate selected lunar orbit rendezvous mission activities including transposition, docking withdrawal, inter-vehicular crew transfer, EVA, SPS and DPS burns, and LM active rendezvous and docking. All achieved except EVA (because of Schweickart's illness, most EVA's were canceled). Assess CSM/LM consumables used. CSM was named Gumdrop and LM was named Spider. Duration was for 10 days, 1 hour, and 1 minute. The Apollo 9 crew was the first to use the Lunar Module and to test all lunar hardware in Earth orbit.

AS-505 (Apollo 10)- Crew consisted of Commander Eugene A. Cernan, CSM Pilot John W. Young, and LM Pilot Thomas P. Stafford. Launch was on May 18, 1969 at 12:49:00 A.M. EDT with a splashdown occurring on May 26, 1969 at 12:52 A.M. EDT. Demonstrate performance of LM and CSM in lunar gravitation field. Evaluate CSM and LM docked and undocked lunar navigation. All mission objectives were achieved. Acted as dress rehearsal for Moon landing. First manned CSM/LM operations in cislunar and lunar environment; simulation of first lunar landing profile. CSM was named Charlie Brown and LM was named Snoopy. Mission duration was 8 days, 0 hours, 3 minutes, and 23 seconds.

AS-506 (Apollo 11)- Crew consisted of Commander Neil A. Armstrong, CSM Pilot Michael Collins, and LM Pilot Edwin E. Aldrin. Launch occurred on July 16, 1969 at 9:32:00 A.M. EDT and splashdown occurred on July 24, 1969 at 12:50 P.M. EDT. Mission was to perform manned lunar landing and return mission safely. CSM was named Columbia and LM was named Eagle. Duration was for 8 days, 3 hours, 18 mins, and 35 seconds. The Apollo 11 astronauts rode into the history books as they became the first people to land and walk on the moon. Here is a short transcript of the landing:

EAGLE: 540 feet, down at 30 [feet per second] . . . down at 15 . . . 400 feet down at 9 . . . forward . . . 350 feet, down at 4 . . . 300 feet, down 3 1/2 . . . 47 forward . . . 1 1/2 down . . . 13 forward . . . 11 forward? coming down nicely . . . 200 feet, 4 1/2 down . . . 5 1/2 down . . . 5 percent . . . 75 feet . . . 6 forward . . . lights on . . . down 2 1/2 . . . 40 feet? down 2 1/2, kicking up some dust . . . 30 feet, 2 1/2 down . . . faint shadow . . . 4 forward . . . 4 forward . . . drifting to right a little . . . O.K. . . .

HOUSTON: 30 seconds [fuel remaining].

EAGLE: Contact light! O.K., engine stop . . . descent engine command override off . . .

HOUSTON: We copy you down, Eagle.

EAGLE: Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed!

HOUSTON: Roger, Tranquility. We copy you on the ground. You've got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. We're breathing again. Thanks a lot.

TRANQUILITY: Thank you . . . That may have seemed like a very long final phase. The auto targeting was taking us right into a football-field-sized crater, with a large number of big boulders and rocks for about one or two crater-diameters around it, and it required flying manually over the rock field to find a reasonably good area.

HOUSTON: Roger, we copy. It was beautiful from here, Tranquility. Over.

TRANQUILITY: We'll get to the details of what's around here, but it looks like a collection of just about every variety of shape, angularity, granularity, about every variety of rock you could find.

HOUSTON: Roger, Tranquility. Be advised there's lots of smiling faces in this room, and all over the world.

AS-507 (Apollo 12)- Crew consisted of Commander Charles Conrade, Jr., CSM Pilot Richard F. Gordon, Jr. and LM Pilot Alan L. Bean. Launch occurred on November 14, 1969 and landing took place on November 24, 1969. Landing site: Ocean of Storms. Retrieved parts of the unmanned Surveyor 3, which had landed on the Moon in April 1967. Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package (ALSEP) deployed. Lunar surface stay-time, 31.5 hours; in lunar orbit 89 hours, with 45 orbits. Astronauts collected 34kg (75 lbs) of material from the lunar surface. CSM was named Yankee Clipper and LM was named Intrepid. Mission duration was 10 days, 4 hours, 36 minutes, and 0 seconds.

AS-508 (Apollo 13)- Crew consisted of Commander James A. Lovell Jr., CSM Pilot John L. Swigert, Jr., and LM Pilot Fred W. Haise, Jr. Launch occurred at 2:13 P.M. EDT on April 11, 1970 and splash downed on April 17, 1970. Apollo 13 was supposed to land in the Fra Mauro area. An explosion on board forced Apollo 13 to circle the moon without landing. (The Fra Mauro site was reassigned to Apollo 14.) Days before the mission, backup LM pilot Charlie Duke inadvertently exposed the crew to German measles. Command module pilot, Ken Mattingly, turned out to have no immunity to measles and was replaced by backup command module pilot Jack Swigert. CSM was named Odyssey and LM was named Aquarius. Mission duration was 5 days, 22 hours, 54 minutes, and 0 seconds. Nine minutes after a television broadcast Oxygen tank Number 2 blew up, causing the Number 1 tank also to fail. The Apollo 13 command modules normal supply of electricity, light, and water was lost, and the crew was stranded about 200,000 miles from Earth. The Lunar Module was their only hope. Amazingly the crew returned back to Earth safely and the mission was therefore named a "successful failure."

The message came in the form of a sharp bang and vibration. Jack Swigert saw a warning light that accompanied the bang, and said, "Houston, we've had a problem here." Lovell came on and told the ground that it was a main B bus undervolt. The time was 2108 hours on April 13. Next, the warning lights indicated the loss of two of Apollo's three fuel cells, which were the spacecrafts prime source of electricity. With warning lights blinking on, One Oxygen tank appeared to be completely empty, and there were indications that the oxygen in the second tank was rapidly being depleted. Thirteen minutes after the explosion, Lovell happened to look out of the left-hand window, and saw the final evidence pointing toward potential catastrophe. "We are venting something out into the- into space," he reported to Houston. Jack Lousma, the CapCom replied, "Roger, we copy you venting." Lovell said, "It's a gas of some sort." It was oxygen gas escaping at a high rate from the second, and last, oxygen tank.

(by James A. Lovell, from Apollo Expeditions to the Moon, edited by Edgar M. Cortright, NASA SP; 350, Washington, DC, 1975 )

AS-509 (Apollo 14)- Crew consisted of Commander Alan B. Shepard, Jr., CSM Pilot Stuart A. Roosa, and LM Pilot Edgar D. Mitchell. Launch was on January 31, 1971 with a splashdown taking place on February 9, 1971. Landing site: Fra Mauro. ALSEP and other instruments deployed. Lunar surface stay-time, 33.5 hours; 67 hours in lunar orbit, with 34 orbits. The crew recovered 42 kg (94 lbs) of materials gathered, using hand cart for first time to transport rocks. The CMS was named the Kitty Hawk with the LM having the nickname of Antares.

AS-510 (Apollo 15)- Crew consisted of Commander David R. Scott, CSM Pilot James B. Irwin, and LM Pilot Alfred M. Worden. Launch occurred on July 26, 1971 and a splashdown took place on August 7, 1971. First to carry orbital sensors in service module of CSM. ALSEP deployed. Scientific payload landed on Moon doubled. Improved spacesuits gave increased mobility and stay-time. Lunar surface stay- time, 66.9 hours. Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV), electric-powered, 4-wheel drive car, traversed total 27.9 km (17 miles). Small sub-satellite left in lunar orbit for first time. The crew collected 6.6 kgs (169 lbs) of lunar material. CMS was named Endeavor and the LM was named the Falcon. Mission duration was 12 days, 17 hours, 12 minutes.

AS-511 (Apollo 16)- Crew consisted of Commander John W. Young, CSM Pilot Thomas K. Mattingly II, and LM Pilot Charles M. Duke, Jr. Launch was on April 16, 1972 with a splashdown on April 27, 1972. Landing site: Descartes Highlands. First study of highlands area. Selected surface experiments deployed, ultraviolet camera/spectrograph used for first time on Moon, and LRV used for second time. Lunar surface stay-time, 71 hours. Astronauts collected 95.8 kg (213 lbs) of lunar samples. The CMS was named Casper and the Lunar Module was nicknamed Orion. The mission lasted for 11 days, 1 hour, and 51 minutes.

AS-512 (Apollo 17)- Crew consisted of Commander Eugene A. Cernan, CSM Pilot Ronald B. Evans, and LM Pilot Harrison H. Schmitt. The crew launched on December 7, 1972 at 12:33 A.M. EDT and returned back to Earth on December 19, 1972. The lunar landing site was the Taurus-Littrow highlands and valley area. This site was picked for Apollo 17 as a location where rocks both older and younger than those previously returned from other Apollo missions. The mission was the final in a series of three J-type missions planned for the Apollo program. These J-type missions can be distinguished from previous G and H-series missions by extended hardware capability, larger scientific payload capacity and by the use of the battery powered Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV). Scientific objectives of the Apollo 17 mission included geological surveying and sampling of materials and surface features in a preselected area of the Taurus-Littrow region, deploying and activating surface experiments, and conducting in-flight experiments and photographic tasks during lunar orbit and transearth coast (TEC). These objectives included: Deployed experiments such as the Apollo lunar surface experiment package (ALSEP) with a Heat Flow experiment, Lunar seismic profiling (LSP), Lunar surface gravimeter (LSG), Lunar atmospheric composition experiment (LACE) and Lunar ejecta and meteorites (LEAM). The mission also included Lunar Sampling and Lunar orbital experiments. Biomedical experiments included the Biostack II Experiment and the BIOCORE experiment. The Command and Service Modules were named America and the Lunar Module was dubbed Challenger. The mission duration was 12 days, 13 hours, and 52 minutes.