Project Apollo

FAS Astronomers Blog, Volume 34, Number 2.

The Goal

“First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.”

_{^{John F. Kennedy – Special Message to Congress – May 25, 1961}}

“We choose to go to the Moon! We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”

^{_{John F. Kennedy – Rice Stadium – September 12, 1962}}

Over 50 years ago, we chose to go to the Moon. And we did with the Apollo program! All in all, the U.S. launched 28 manned missions into space with 72 astronauts during Project Mercury, Project Gemini, and Project Apollo. Eight astronauts flew twice, five (Schirra, Young, Conrad, Scott, and Cernan) three times, and two (Jim Lovell and Tom Stafford) four times. .

The Beginnings (Project Mercury)

It all began with six Mercury flights, which demonstrated that the U.S. could send humans safely into space, into orbit, and return them to Earth. It was not without some hitches along the way. Gus Grissom’s Liberty Bell 7 sank to the bottom of the ocean. John Glenn had a scare when it was thought his Friendship 7 heat shield was loose. Scott Carpenter ran short of fuel and landed far down range from his targeted landing zone. Most of Gordon Cooper’s Faith 7 systems were failing near the end of his marathon flight. 

Mercury	Crew	Dates
Freedom 7	Alan Shepard	May 5, 1961
Liberty Bell 7	Virgil (Gus) Grissom	July 21, 1961
Friendship 7	John Glenn	February 20, 1962
Aurora 7	Scott Carpenter	May 24, 1962
Sigma 7	Walter Schirra	October 3, 1962
Faith 7	Gordon Cooper	May 15-16, 1963

The United States wasn’t alone in sending humans to space. The Soviet Union was first with the flight of Yuri Gagarin (Vostok 1) on April 11, 1961. Unlike Alan Shepard, who flew a suborbital flight for the first U.S. manned space mission, Gagarin completed a full orbit of the Earth. The Soviets achieved several other firsts including the first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova. She completed 48 orbits of the Earth in June 1963. They also flew the first day long mission of 17 orbits with Gherman Titov (Vostok 2) on August 6, 1961. 

The Soviets were the first to send multiple crewed spacecraft into orbit at the same time for several days with Andriyan Nikolayev (Vostok 3) and Pavel Popovich (Vostok 4) in August 1962. Valery Bykovsky (Vostok 5) and Valentina Tereshkova (Vostok 6) followed in June 1963. 

The Bridge (Project Gemini)

The two-person Gemini program followed project Mercury. With these flights, NASA developed and tested the techniques – such as rendezvous and space walks – that would be required to reach the Moon.

The Soviets preformed the first spacewalk on March 18, 1965, when Alexei Leonov left his Voskhod 2 spacecraft and became the first person to float in space. The U.S. achieved its first spacewalk a few weeks later on June 3, 1965, when Ed White floated in space for 23 minutes on Gemini IV. 

The U.S. completed eight more spacewalks in 1966 when Eugene Cernan, Michael Collins, Richard Gordon, and Buzz Aldrin “walked in space” on four Gemini missions. 

However, the goal was to rendezvous and dock two spacecraft. The first rendezvous took place between Gemini VI and VII in December 1965. The first docking was between Gemini VIII and an unmanned Agena in March 1966, although this flight almost ended in disaster when a thruster stuck open putting the Gemini spacecraft into a spin. However, docking became somewhat routine with the last three Gemini flights.

Gemini	Crew	Dates
III (3)	Gus Grissom & John Young	March 23, 1965
IV (4)	James McDivitt & Ed White	June 3-7, 1965
V (5)	Gordon Cooper & Pete Conrad	August 21-29, 1965
VI (6)	Walter Schirra & Tom Stafford	December 15-16, 1965
VII (7)	Frank Borman & Jim Lovell	December 4-18, 1965
VIII (8)	Neil Armstrong & David Scott	March 16, 1966
IX (9)	Tom Stafford & Gene Cernan	June 3-6, 1966
X (10)	John Young & Michael Collins	July 18-21, 1966
XI (11)	Pete Conrad & Richard Gordon	September 12-15, 1966
XII (12)	Jim Lovell & Buzz Aldrin	November 11-15, 1966

The Finale (Project Apollo)

Then there was Apollo. It took the largest rocket (the Saturn V) and the strangest-looking spacecraft ever created (the Lunar Module) to reach the surface of the Moon. A smaller Saturn 1B was to be used for the first two Apollo manned flights.

The Saturn V was 363 feet tall – equivalent to a 36-story building and 60 feet higher than the Statue of Liberty. It had three stages. The 1^st Stage (S-IC) was 138 feet high with five F-1 engines producing 7 ½ million lbs. of thrust. The 2^nd Stage (S-II) was 81.6 feet high with five J-2 engines. The 3^rd Stage (S-IVB-500) was 58.6 feet high with a single J-2 engine. It burned for two minutes to put the spacecraft into a 115-mile orbit at 17,500 miles per hour and burned again for around five minutes to escape Earth’s gravity and reach a velocity of 25,000 miles per hour.

At the top of the Saturn rockets were the Command and Service modules along with the LM. The service module contained all the equipment needed to power the spacecraft, while the command module carried the crew.

^{Images Credit: NASA}

Before astronauts could fly in Apollo, NASA launched three unmanned flights in 1966. They had a few more scheduled, but we’ll come to those later. At this time there wasn’t the Apollo numbering scheme used for the later flights.  

• Apollo/Saturn 1B flights were designated AS-200s. 
• Apollo/Saturn V flights were designated AS-500s.

These first three flights launched using the Saturn 1B.

• Flights AS-201 and AS-202 were test flights with an Apollo command and service module.  Eventually they counted as Apollo 2 and 3, although they never received an official designation.
• Flight AS-203 was a Saturn 1B with just a nose cone.

Sadly, the manned Apollo program started with a tragedy. On January 27, 1967, the Apollo 1 spacecraft caught fire during a routine test. The crew (Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee) perished. This put the entire Apollo program on hold for eighteen months. 

After the Apollo 1 fire, NASA launch three more unmanned Apollo flights. 

• Apollo 4 (AS-501) was next and the first test of the Saturn V. It was an “all up” test. Rather than separate flights to test different components, it was decided to test everything at once. It was a gamble, but it also saved money and time. It worked! The flight was successful.
• Apollo 5 (AS-204) was the fourth test of the Saturn IB, which focused on the launch of a Lunar Module. It was also successful. 
• Apollo 6 (AS-502) was the second test flight of the Saturn V. It didn’t go quite as planned.  Two of the S-II engines cut off early and the S-IVB engine had issues as well. However, the problems were identified and corrected for future flights.

Finally, and undeterred, NASA continued on. In October 1968, Apollo 7 lifted off with three astronauts for an eleven-day mission to fully test the Apollo command module. The crew was Wally Schirra, Walt Cunningham, and Don Eisele. The flight was a technical success, although there were some issues resulting from a cold Wally Schirra experienced while in orbit. 

The next step was to fly and test the Lunar Module (LM) in Earth orbit, but it wasn’t ready. NASA needed to do something for the next Apollo mission. They decided to go for the Moon. For the first time ever, humans left the gravitational bounds of the Earth and visited another world. Apollo 8, carrying Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders, reached the Moon on December 24, 1968, almost three days after launch. They completed am engine burn while on the far side of the Moon, which took them into lunar orbit. And, for the first time, humans from Earth could look down and see the far side of the Moon. Apollo 8 completed 10 orbits before returning home. This was also the first manned test of the huge Saturn V rocket that would take the remaining Apollo flights into space. Many remember this flight from the “Earthrise” photo and the holiday message from the crew on Christmas Eve.

Finally, the LM was ready, and Apollo 9, with the crew of Jim McDivitt, David Scott, and Rusty Schweickart, performed a Moon landing rehearsal in Earth orbit. One more test flight was necessary, and Apollo 10 performed a full-dress rehearsal in lunar orbit. The crew of Tom Stafford, John Young, and Gene Cernan did almost everything required for a landing except for the landing itself. Although, they did come within 47,000 feet of the Moon’s surface, 

For these later flights, NASA had to distinguish between the command module and LM, so they gave each a distinct call sign. For Apollo 9, it was Gumdrop and Spider. The Apollo 10 crew chose Charlie Brown and Snoopy. I can’t help but think if history had been a little different. Instead of “Houston Tranquility base here, the Eagle has landed”, we could’ve heard “Houston Tranquility base here, Snoopy is on the ground.” Or maybe, “Snoopy is on the lunar doghouse.” NASA decided that more acceptable names should be used going forward, so the Apollo 11 crew chose Columbia and Eagle. The remaining flights chose the following names: Apollo 12 (Yankee Clipper and Intrepid), Apollo 13 (Odyssey and Aquarius), Apollo 14 (Kitty Hawk and Antares), Apollo 15 (Endeavor and Falcon), Apollo 16 (Casper and Orion), and Apollo 17 (America and Challenger). 

The road was now clear for a landing on the Moon. The crew for the first landing attempt was Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin. In late July 1969 they were ready to go. On July 16, 1969, the three men sat in a small spacecraft atop the largest rocket ever created. In a few minutes, they would be launched into space to begin humankind’s greatest adventure. Everyone kept their fingers crossed as the mighty Saturn V came to life.

On July 19, Apollo 11 flew behind the Moon and fired the Command Module engine putting it into lunar orbit. Armstrong and Aldrin detached the LM from the command module leaving Michael Colins behind. Later, while they were again behind the Moon, Armstrong fired the LM’s descent engine and Eagle began its descent toward the surface of the Moon.

It was close! They first encountered communication problems. Then on the way down the LM’s computer overloaded five times giving 1202 and 1201 program alerts. Only some quick thinking from Steve Bales in Mission Control allowed the landing to continue. 

Just before landing, the LM was heading into a field of boulders forcing Armstrong to manually fly the LM over the boulders. The problem was that they were moving forward rather than down toward the surface. There wasn’t much fuel left. They landed with less than 30 seconds of fuel remaining. If you’ve ever listened to the dialog with the ground, you can hear the 60-seconds and 30-seconds remaining call from Capcom Charlie Duke. Everyone was nervous, would they land successfully or abort! Well, they made it down. Many of us remember the first words from the surface of the Moon: “Houston, Tranquility Base here, the Eagle has landed.” The response from Charlie Duke in Mission Control was “Roger Tranquility, we copy you on the ground. You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. We’re breathing again.”

After the landing, Armstrong and Aldrin stayed in the LM for a few hours preparing for their walk on the surface. First, Armstrong slowly came down the ladder, he checked to make sure he could get back up and then he stepped on to the surface. His first words, “That’s one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind”, is etched into history. Twenty minutes later Aldrin joined him on the surface. 

Around 21 ½ hours after the landing, they fired the ascent engine and the LM lifted off toward a docking with the Command Module. They soon fired the Apollo service module engine and began the trip back to Earth. Apollo 11 returned to Earth on July 24, 1969 at 12:50 p.m. EDT. Kennedy’s pledge had been fulfilled. 

Apollo 12 would repeat the Apollo 11 flight, but with a few enhancements including a more precise landing and two EVAs on the Moon’s surface. The crew was Pete Conrad and Dick Gordon (both from Gemini XI) along with rookie Al Bean. 

Apollo 12 lifted off on a cloudy and rainy day (November 14, 1969). The Saturn V was almost immediately struck by lightning. Houston lost communication (telemetry) twice during the initial stages of the launch. But the Saturn V continued to fire and put the spacecraft into orbit. After checking things out, it was decided to go on to the Moon.

Pete Conrad achieved a precise landing by flying the LM closer to the target landing point than expected. When he stepped on the Moon, Conrad, who was 5’ 6”, said “Whoopie! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that’s a long one for me”. During their 2^nd EVA, Conrad and Bean wandered over to the Surveyor 3 spacecraft, clipped off a part of it, and returned it to Earth.

There was a standard rotation where the backup crew from a previous mission would become the primary crew for the following 3^rd mission. There was a slight change to this when Alan Shepard, who had been removed from active status and became the head of the Astronaut office, was reinstated. He immediately when to the top of the list. Sheppard and his crew of Stu Rossa and Edgar Mitchell should have been assigned to Apollo 13. However, it was decided to push Shepard’s crew out to Apollo 14 and give Apollo 13 to Jim Lovell and his crew. 

Now we come to Apollo 13. You might have seen the movie, if so, you know the story. Apollo 13 was targeted for the Fra Mauro area of the Moon. The crew was originally Jim Lovell, Ken Mattingly, and Fred Haise. Just before the launch, the crew was exposed to the measles. Because Mattingly was the only one who had not had the measles, he was replace by Jack Swigert. 

For two days, the flight proceeded normally. Then, Mission Control asked Swigert to “stir” the oxygen tanks. Oxygen tank 2 almost immediately blew up and damaged oxygen tank 1. Swigert heard a bang and reported; “Houston, we’ve had a problem”. Apollo 13 was in trouble! Power was dropping fast. But, thanks to the quick reaction and creativity of Mission Control, Apollo 13 flew around the Moon and four days later landed in the Pacific Ocean. It was over, but this was the closest the U.S. came to losing a crew in space since Gemini VIII. For more on this, see Houston, we’ve had a problem.

Apollo 14 would be next. After the issues with Apollo 13, this needed to be a very successful mission, and it was. Apollo 14 completed the exploration of the Fra Mauro region and included the first golf balls to be hit on the Moon.

There would be three more Apollo missions to the Moon. These were the more complex “J” missions with much more of a focus on science. There would also be longer stays on the surface and, for the first time, the lunar rover, essentially a lunar dune buggy, would be used. Geology was a big part of the science. 

• Apollo 15, with David Scott, Al Worden, and James Irwin, explored the Hadley Rille region. They completed three EVAs lasting 18 ½ hours and traveled 17 ½ miles across the surface using the lunar rover. 
• Apollo 16, with John Young, Ken Mattingly, and Charlie Duke, explored the Descartes highlands. They completed three EVAs lasting over 20 hours. This was the second use of the lunar rover, which traveled 16 ½ miles.
• Apollo 17, with Gene Cernan, Ronald Evans, and Harison Schmitt, explored the Taurus-Littrow highlands and valley. Again, there were three EVAs – these lasting 22 hours. The crew included the first scientist on the Moon (Harrison Schmitt).

There were three more Apollo missions scheduled for the Moon. The Saturn V rockets were built. Everyone was ready to go, except for those in charge of the funding. These three missions were cancelled and two of the Saturn V rockets are now on display at the space centers in Florida and Texas.

The crews were never officially assigned to these missions, but if the normal rotation applied, the backup crews for Apollo 15, 16 and 17 would be the primary crew for 18, 19 and 20.  Note that Harrison Schmitt was on the backup crew for Apollo 15 and probably would have been on Apollo 18, but after it was canceled, he was moved up to Apollo 17 and it is possible that Joe Engle, originally scheduled for Apollo 17, would have ended up on Apollo 18.

All in all, there were 12 manned Apollo missions concluding with Apollo 17 and the last landing. Nine reached the Moon, and six of those landed on the Moon’s surface.

After the landings on the Moon, the U.S. and Soviet Union conducted the first joint mission between the two countries. The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project launched on July 15, 1975, with astronauts Thomas Stafford, Vance Brand, and Donald Slayton aboard an Apollo spacecraft and cosmonauts Alexie Leonov and Valeri Kubasov on a Soyuz spacecraft. The two spacecrafts docked in orbit on July 17 officially ending the space race.

Apollo	Crew (Commander, CMP, LMP)	Dates
1	Grissom, White, Chaffe	January 27, 1967
7	Schirra, Eisele, Cunningham	October 11-22, 1968
8	Borman, Lovell, Anders	December 21-27, 1968
9	McDivitt, Scott, Schweickart	March 3-13, 1969
10	Stafford, Young, Cernan	May 18-26, 1969
11	Armstrong*, Collins, Aldrin*	July 16-24, 1969
12	Conrad*, Gordon, Bean*	November 14-24, 1969
13	Lovell, Swigert, Haise	April 11-17, 1970
14	Shepard*, Roosa, Mitchell*	Jan 31-Feb 9, 1971
15	Scott*, Worden, Irwin*	July 26-August 7, 1971
16	Young*, Mattingly, Duke*	April 16-27, 1972
17	Cernan*, Evans, Schmitt*	December 7-19, 1972
Apollo-Soyuz	Stafford, Brand, Slayton	July 15-24, 1975

The Apollo missions were unique in that they were the only time humans traveled beyond the narrow confines of Earth orbit and ventured farther out into space. For the first time in human history, travelers from the planet Earth could look back at their home planet from a vast distance.