{"id":23401,"date":"2026-02-14T16:37:22","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T21:37:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fas37.org\/wp\/?p=23401"},"modified":"2026-04-04T07:10:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T11:10:29","slug":"project-apollo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fas37.org\/wp\/project-apollo\/","title":{"rendered":"Project Apollo"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

FAS Astronomers Blog, Volume 34, Number 2.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Goal<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cFirst, 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

John F. Kennedy – Special Message to Congress – May 25, 1961<\/sup><\/sub><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

John F. Kennedy – Rice Stadium – September 12, 1962<\/sub><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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. . <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Beginnings (Project Mercury)<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s 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\u2019s Faith 7 systems were failing near the end of his marathon flight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mercury<\/strong><\/strong><\/td>Crew<\/strong><\/strong> <\/strong><\/td>Dates<\/strong><\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/thead>
Freedom 7<\/td>Alan Shepard<\/td>May 5, 1961<\/td><\/tr>
Liberty Bell 7<\/td>Virgil (Gus) Grissom<\/td>July 21, 1961<\/td><\/tr>
Friendship 7<\/td>John Glenn<\/td>February 20, 1962<\/td><\/tr>
Aurora 7<\/td>Scott Carpenter<\/td>May 24, 1962<\/td><\/tr>
Sigma 7<\/td>Walter Schirra<\/td>October 3, 1962<\/td><\/tr>
Faith 7<\/td>Gordon Cooper<\/td>May 15-16, 1963<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Mercury Astronauts
Image Credit: NASA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The United States wasn\u2019t 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Bridge (Project Gemini)<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. completed eight more spacewalks in 1966 when Eugene Cernan, Michael Collins, Richard Gordon, and Buzz Aldrin \u201cwalked in space\u201d on four Gemini missions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gemini<\/strong><\/strong><\/td>Crew<\/strong><\/strong> <\/strong><\/td>Dates<\/strong><\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/thead>
III (3)<\/td>Gus Grissom & John Young<\/td>March 23, 1965<\/td><\/tr>
IV (4)<\/td>James McDivitt & Ed White<\/td>June 3-7, 1965<\/td><\/tr>
V (5)<\/td>Gordon Cooper & Pete Conrad<\/td>August 21-29, 1965<\/td><\/tr>
VI (6)<\/td>Walter Schirra & Tom Stafford<\/td>December 15-16, 1965<\/td><\/tr>
VII (7)<\/td>Frank Borman & Jim Lovell<\/td>December 4-18, 1965<\/td><\/tr>
VIII (8)<\/td>Neil Armstrong & David Scott<\/td>March 16, 1966<\/td><\/tr>
IX (9)<\/td>Tom Stafford & Gene Cernan<\/td>June 3-6, 1966<\/td><\/tr>
X (10)<\/td>John Young & Michael Collins<\/td>July 18-21, 1966<\/td><\/tr>
XI (11)<\/td>Pete Conrad & Richard Gordon<\/td>September 12-15, 1966<\/td><\/tr>
XII (12)<\/td>Jim Lovell & Buzz Aldrin<\/td>November 11-15, 1966<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Gemini VI & VII
Image Credit: NASA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The Finale (Project Apollo)<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Apollo 11 Saturn V space vehicle. Credit: NASA\/KSC.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Astronaut Alan L. Bean, lunar module pilot for the Apollo 12 mission, is about to step off the ladder of the Lunar Module. Credit: NASA\/JSC.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The Saturn V was 363 feet tall \u2013 equivalent to a 36-story building and 60 feet higher than the Statue of Liberty. It had three stages. The 1st<\/sup> Stage (S-IC) was 138 feet high with five F-1 engines producing 7 \u00bd million lbs. of thrust. The 2nd<\/sup> Stage (S-II) was 81.6 feet high with five J-2 engines. The 3rd<\/sup> 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\u2019s gravity and reach a velocity of 25,000 miles per hour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Images Credit: NASA<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before astronauts could fly in Apollo, NASA launched three unmanned flights in 1966. They had a few more scheduled, but we\u2019ll come to those later. At this time there wasn\u2019t the Apollo numbering scheme used for the later flights.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n