Six or seven 28–32-volt, 296 ampere hour silver-zinc
Regime
Lunar orbit
Lunar landing
Design life
75 hours (extended)
Dimensions
Length
23 ft 1 in (7.04 m)
Diameter
13 ft 10 in (4.22 m) without landing gear
Width
31 ft (9.4 m), landing gear deployed
Production
Status
Retired
Built
15
Launched
10
Operational
10
Retired
1972
Failed
0
Lost
0
Maiden launch
January 22, 1968
Last launch
December 7, 1972
Last retirement
December 14, 1972
Related spacecraft
Flown with
Apollo Command and Service Module
Configuration
The Apollo Lunar Module (LM/ˈlɛm/), originally designated the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM), was the lunar lander spacecraft that was flown between lunar orbit and the Moon's surface during the United States' Apollo program. It was the first crewed spacecraft to operate exclusively in the airless vacuum of space, and remains the only crewed vehicle to land anywhere beyond Earth.
Structurally and aerodynamically incapable of flight through Earth's atmosphere, the two-stage lunar module was ferried to lunar orbit attached to the Apollo command and service module (CSM), about twice its mass. Its crew of two flew the complete lunar module from lunar orbit to the Moon's surface. During takeoff, the spent descent stage was used as a launch pad for the ascent stage which then flew back to the command module, after which it was also discarded.
Overseen by Grumman, the LM's development was plagued with problems that delayed its first uncrewed flight by about ten months and its first crewed flight by about three months. Still, the LM became the most reliable component of the Apollo–Saturn space vehicle.[1] The total cost of the LM for development and the units produced was $21.65 billion in 2016 dollars, adjusting from a nominal total of $2.29 billion[2] using the NASA New Start Inflation Indices.[3]
Ten lunar modules were launched into space. Of these, six were landed by humans on the Moon from 1969 to 1972. The first two flown were tests in low Earth orbit: Apollo 5, without a crew; and Apollo 9 with a crew. A third test flight in low lunar orbit was Apollo 10, a dress rehearsal for the first landing, conducted on Apollo 11. The Apollo 13 lunar module functioned as a lifeboat to provide life support and propulsion to keep the crew alive for the trip home, when their CSM was disabled by an oxygen tank explosion en route to the Moon.
The six landed descent stages remain at their landing sites; their corresponding ascent stages crashed into the Moon following use. One ascent stage (Apollo 10's Snoopy) was discarded in a heliocentric orbit after its descent stage was discarded in lunar orbit. The other three LMs were burned up in the Earth's atmosphere: the four stages of Apollo 5 and Apollo 9 each re-entered separately, while Apollo 13's Aquarius re-entered as a unit.
^Moon Race: The History of Apollo DVD, Columbia River Entertainment (Portland, Oregon, 2007)
^Orloff, Richard (1996). Apollo by the Numbers(PDF). National Aeronautics and Space Administration. p. 22. Archived (PDF) from the original on February 22, 2016. Retrieved May 23, 2016.
^"NASA New Start Inflation Indices". National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Archived from the original on June 24, 2016. Retrieved May 23, 2016.[dead link]
and 28 Related for: Apollo Lunar Module information
LunarModule Eagle (LM-5) is the spacecraft that served as the crewed lunar lander of Apollo 11, which was the first mission to land humans on the Moon...
lunar orbit, astronaut John Young remained in the Command and Service Module (CSM) while astronauts Thomas Stafford and Gene Cernan flew the Apollo Lunar...
hour (18.0 km/h) on its last mission, Apollo 17. Each LRV was carried to the Moon folded up in the LunarModule's Quadrant 1 Bay. After being unpacked...
LunarModule Pilot Charles Duke and Command Module Pilot Ken Mattingly. Launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 16, 1972, Apollo 16...
Space Center on April 11, 1970, but the lunar landing was aborted after an oxygen tank in the service module (SM) ruptured two days into the mission,...
anodized aluminum tubes. The flags were carried on the outside of the ApolloLunarModule (LM), most of them on the descent ladder inside a thermally insulated...
carried a crew of three astronauts and the second Apollo spacecraft, the ApolloLunarModule, to lunar orbit, and brought the astronauts back to Earth....
1966 and as lunarmodule pilot of Apollo 10 in 1969 before he served on Apollo 14's backup crew. Evans, 39 years old when assigned to Apollo 17, had been...
standards. Starting with Apollo 7, a camera was carried on every Apollo command module (CM) except Apollo 9. For each lunar landing mission, a camera...
Apollo 5 (launched January 22, 1968), also known as AS-204, was the uncrewed first flight of the ApolloLunarModule (LM) that would later carry astronauts...
of Apollo. Kennedy's goal was accomplished on the Apollo 11 mission when astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed their ApolloLunarModule (LM)...
and a lunar subsatellite deployed at the end of the moonwalks. The lunarmodule returned safely to the command module and, at the end of Apollo 15's 74th...
Alfred M. Worden as Command Module pilot, and James B. Irwin as LunarModule pilot. They became the crew of Apollo 15. For Apollo, a third crew of astronauts...
capsule communicator (CAPCOM) for Apollo 9. The LunarModule Pilot (LMP), Edgar Mitchell, aged 40 at the time of Apollo 14, joined the Navy in 1952 and...
the Moon, or in case of a communications failure. The Apollo command module (CM) and lunarmodule (LM), were each equipped with a version of PGNCS. PGNCS...
the full Apollo spacecraft: the command and service module (CSM) with the LunarModule (LM). The mission was flown to qualify the LM for lunar orbit operations...
surface. As of 2021, the ApolloLunarModule is the only lunarmodule to have ever been used in human spaceflight, completing six lunar landings from 1969 to...
Apollo 11 (July 16–24, 1969) was the American spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and LunarModule Pilot Buzz Aldrin...
Command Module Pilot (second seat) on Apollo 8. Lovell became the first to fly a second Apollo mission as commander of Apollo 13, the third lunar landing...
A lunar lander or Moon lander is a spacecraft designed to land on the surface of the Moon. As of 2024, the ApolloLunarModule is the only lunar lander...
or lunarmodule ascent engine (LMAE) is a fixed-thrust hypergolic rocket engine developed by Bell Aerosystems for use in the ApolloLunarModule ascent...
the United States ApolloLunarModules flown on lunar landing missions Apollo 11 through Apollo 17, to be left permanently on the lunar surface. The plaques...
Station in Florida. Originally planned as the second crewed ApolloLunarModule and command module test, to be flown in an elliptical medium Earth orbit in...
Command Module with a half-fueled Service Module, and more than enough to orbit a fully fueled LunarModule. Two suborbital tests of the Apollo Block I...