1961–1972 American crewed lunar exploration program
Apollo program
Program overview
Country
United States
Organization
NASA
Purpose
Crewed lunar landing
Status
Completed
Program history
Cost
$25.4 billion (1973)
$257 billion (2023)[1]
Duration
1961–1972
First flight
SA-1
October 27, 1961 (1961-10-27)
First crewed flight
Apollo 7
October 11, 1968 (1968-10-11)
Last flight
Apollo 17
December 19, 1972 (1972-12-19)
Successes
32
Failures
2 (Apollo 1 and 13)
Partial failures
1 (Apollo 6)
Launch site(s)
Cape Kennedy
Kennedy Space Center
White Sands
Vehicle information
Crewed vehicle(s)
Apollo CSM
Apollo LM
Launch vehicle(s)
Little Joe II
Saturn I
Saturn IB
Saturn V
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The Apollo program, also known as Project Apollo, was the United States human spaceflight program carried out by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which succeeded in preparing and landing the first men[2] on the Moon from 1968 to 1972. It was first conceived in 1960 during President Dwight D. Eisenhower's administration as a three-person spacecraft to follow the one-person Project Mercury, which put the first Americans in space. Apollo was later dedicated to President John F. Kennedy's national goal for the 1960s of "landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth" in an address to Congress on May 25, 1961. It was the third US human spaceflight program to fly, preceded by the two-person Project Gemini conceived in 1961 to extend spaceflight capability in support of Apollo.
Kennedy's goal was accomplished on the Apollo 11 mission when astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed their Apollo Lunar Module (LM) on July 20, 1969, and walked on the lunar surface, while Michael Collins remained in lunar orbit in the command and service module (CSM), and all three landed safely on Earth in the Pacific Ocean on July 24. Five subsequent Apollo missions also landed astronauts on the Moon, the last, Apollo 17, in December 1972. In these six spaceflights, twelve people walked on the Moon.
Buzz Aldrin (pictured) walked on the Moon with Neil Armstrong, on Apollo 11, July 20–21, 1969.Earthrise, the iconic 1968 image from Apollo 8 taken by astronaut William Anders
Apollo ran from 1961 to 1972, with the first crewed flight in 1968. It encountered a major setback in 1967 when an Apollo 1 cabin fire killed the entire crew during a prelaunch test. After the first successful landing, sufficient flight hardware remained for nine follow-on landings with a plan for extended lunar geological and astrophysical exploration. Budget cuts forced the cancellation of three of these. Five of the remaining six missions achieved successful landings, but the Apollo 13 landing was prevented by an oxygen tank explosion in transit to the Moon, crippling the CSM. The crew barely returned to Earth safely by using the lunar module as a "lifeboat" on the return journey. Apollo used the Saturn family of rockets as launch vehicles, which were also used for an Apollo Applications Program, which consisted of Skylab, a space station that supported three crewed missions in 1973–1974, and the Apollo–Soyuz Test Project, a joint United States-Soviet Union low Earth orbit mission in 1975.
Apollo set several major human spaceflight milestones. It stands alone in sending crewed missions beyond low Earth orbit. Apollo 8 was the first crewed spacecraft to orbit another celestial body, and Apollo 11 was the first crewed spacecraft to land humans on one.
Overall, the Apollo program returned 842 pounds (382 kg) of lunar rocks and soil to Earth, greatly contributing to the understanding of the Moon's composition and geological history. The program laid the foundation for NASA's subsequent human spaceflight capability and funded construction of its Johnson Space Center and Kennedy Space Center. Apollo also spurred advances in many areas of technology incidental to rocketry and human spaceflight, including avionics, telecommunications, and computers.
^"How much did the Apollo program cost?". The Planetary Society. Retrieved March 25, 2024.
^"July 20, 1969: One Giant Leap for Mankind - NASA". July 20, 2019.
The Apolloprogram, also known as Project Apollo, was the United States human spaceflight program carried out by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration...
The Apollo Applications Program (AAP) was created as early as 1966 by NASA headquarters to develop science-based human spaceflight missions using hardware...
The Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) was a digital computer produced for the Apolloprogram that was installed on board each Apollo command module (CM)...
Apollo 1, initially designated AS-204, was planned to be the first crewed mission of the Apolloprogram, the American undertaking to land the first man...
Apollo 13 (April 11–17, 1970) was the seventh crewed mission in the Apollo space program and the third meant to land on the Moon. The craft was launched...
the Apollo crewed Moon landing program of the 1960s and 1970s were canceled, for reasons which included changes in technical direction, the Apollo 1 fire...
The Apollo 11 missing tapes were those that were recorded from Apollo 11's slow-scan television (SSTV) telecast in its raw format on telemetry data tape...
As part of the Apolloprogram by NASA, 24 astronauts flew nine missions to the Moon between December 1968 and December 1972. During six successful two-man...
The Apollo command and service module (CSM) was one of two principal components of the United States Apollo spacecraft, used for the Apolloprogram, which...
Apollo 9 (March 3–13, 1969) was the third human spaceflight in NASA's Apolloprogram. Flown in low Earth orbit, it was the second crewed Apollo mission...
The Apolloprogram was a United States human spaceflight program carried out from 1961 to 1972 by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)...
Apollo 17 (December 7–19, 1972) was the eleventh and final mission of NASA's Apolloprogram, the sixth and most recent time humans have set foot on the...
16 at 13:32 UTC, and it was the fifth crewed mission of NASA's Apolloprogram. The Apollo spacecraft had three parts: a command module (CM) with a cabin...
Apollo primary guidance, navigation, and control system (PGNCS, pronounced pings) was a self-contained inertial guidance system that allowed Apollo spacecraft...
Like Apollo, the Orion capsule would then have returned to Earth, re-entering the atmosphere and landing in water. Like those of the ApolloProgram, Constellation...
Apollo 14 (January 31 – February 9, 1971) was the eighth crewed mission in the United States Apolloprogram, the third to land on the Moon, and the first...
between lunar orbit and the Moon's surface during the United States' Apolloprogram. It was the first crewed spacecraft to operate exclusively in the airless...
Apollo 7 (October 11–22, 1968) was the first crewed flight in NASA's Apolloprogram, and saw the resumption of human spaceflight by the agency after the...
mechanism of the Apollo was a "probe and drogue" system designed to allow the Apollo Command/Service Module (CSM) to dock with the Apollo Lunar Module. The...
Apollo 6 (April 4, 1968), also known as AS-502, was the third and final uncrewed flight in the United States' ApolloProgram and the second test of the...
historicity of the Apollo Moon missions; entitled A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Moon, Sibrel describes the Apolloprogram as a "Cold War CIA...
Apollo 10 (May 18–26, 1969) was the fourth human spaceflight in the United States' Apolloprogram and the second to orbit the Moon. NASA, the mission's...
Apollo 12 (November 14–24, 1969) was the sixth crewed flight in the United States Apolloprogram and the second to land on the Moon. It was launched on...
minutes to a soft landing. The program was implemented by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to prepare for the Apolloprogram, and started in 1960. JPL...
Apollo 4 (November 9, 1967), also known as SA-501, was the uncrewed first test flight of the Saturn V launch vehicle, the rocket that eventually took astronauts...
Apollo 15 (July 26 – August 7, 1971) was the ninth crewed mission in the United States' Apolloprogram and the fourth to land on the Moon. It was the first...
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