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Apollo Project: The First Step
The 'new milestone' is living on the moon, but before that, quite a lot of other milestones were achieved.
Almost all of these happened in NASA's Apollo Project. These achievements will be discussed here. |
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In the late 1950's, after the then-Soviet Union launched the first earth satellite, Sputnik, the United States began a race into space.
And in the early 1960's, President John F. Kennedy committed the U.S. to a Race to the Moon.
While Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gargarin was the first human being to orbit the Earth, U.S. Navy Commander Alan B.Shepard became
the first U.S. astronaut in space, with his 15-minute sub-orbital flight.
From then on, through Project Mercury, Gemini and Apollo, the U.S. manned exploration of space was an exciting '60's
adventure that, even through the turmoil of the late '60's, brought Americans together in a common,
astounding goal: to land on the Moon.
Apollo 11, in 1969, celebrated the first manned lunar landing, continuing into the early '70's
with several more landings and the almost tragic Apollo 13.
The Apollo moon missions were the main expeditions to the moon. Not all of the space crafts that were launched were manned.
Only a little over half of them were. |  |
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At the same time the Russians were competing with the U.S., a race to the moon.
This was often referred to as the "Space Race".
Although the Russians were the first ones in space, NASA beat them to the moon.
America was the first to land on the moon with the landing module of the Apollo 11 spacecraft in July of 1969.
The entire world watched in awe as Neil Armstrong spoke those words that would forever be remembered "One small step for man, but a giant leap for mankind".
The Soviets may not have known what he said but they knew exactly what had happened, the USA's astronaut's had walked on the moon.
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- Apollo XI
- Apollo XI was the first spacecraft to land a lunar LM (landing module). It was launched on July 16, 1969 and carried only three astronauts, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins . The spacecraft used in this mission was a Saturn V. Apollo XI was a complete success. The LM landed in the Sea of Tranquility where Aldrin and Armstrong spent nearly two hours on the moon. They collected many soil and rock samples and, also, provided television and photographic coverage of the landing and of the moon's surface.
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While these astronauts were making history on the moon, Collins stayed in the command module orbiting it. No problems occurred during their return trip and they splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on July 24. The three astronauts were quarantined for three weeks after their landing. The U.S.A. zoomed to the moon and back, won their race with the Russians, and made history. Down to 50,000 feet above the Moon, Apollo 11 was little different from 10. Armstrong, Aldrin, and Command Module Pilot Mike Collins had a flawless launch from Earth, a long, uneventful coast out to the Moon, and a nominal engine burn to put themselves into lunar orbit. As they crossed over the Sea of Tranquility for the first time, Armstrong remarked that "the pictures and maps brought back by Apollo 8 and 10 have given us a very good preview of what to look at here. It looks very much like the pictures; but, like the difference between watching a real football game and watching it on TV, there's no substitute for actually being here." On that first orbit, the planned landing site itself was still enveloped in pre-dawn darkness and it wasn't until their fourth pass - during the LM checkout - that Aldrin reported seeing it from the LM windows.
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Listen to Armstrongs historic words
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- Apollo XII
- Apollo XII was launched November 14,1969. The purpose of the mission was to practice pinpoint landings on the moon. Early in Apollo XII, NASA sketched out a sequence of missions which would lead to the first landing. "A" missions were unmanned tests of the launch vehicles and the Command Module; "B" missions were unmanned tests of the LM; "C" missions (Apollo 7) were manned, earth orbital tests of the Command Module; "D" missions (Apollo 9) were LM/CSM tests in earth orbit; "E" missions (none were flown) were tests in high earth orbit; "F" missions (Apollo 10) were lunar orbit tests; and the "G" mission was the landing. In 1968, NASA added three other mission types to the list: "H" missions (Apollo 12, 13, and 14) would be subsequent flights to other landing sites using the basic equipment; "I" missions (none flown) would be lunar orbit-only science flights; and "J" missions would be the longer visits that LM design changes would make possible. With Rovers at their disposal, each of the J-mission crews would be able to visit a variety of geologic features scattered around the local countryside, collect far greater quantities of rock and soil than walking astronauts could hope to carry, make use of an impressive number of tools carried on the Rover, and also give the research teams back on Earth a mobile experiment platform. In general, the J-missions promised a significant increase in productivity. However, before such impressive missions could be attempted, NASA had to demonstrate that crews could achieve pinpoint landings, work a full-day in the stiff suits and, if necessary, walk several kilometers back to the LM from a disabled Rover.
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- Apollo 13
- Apollo 13 werd gelanceerd op 11 april 1970. Halverwege naar de maan ontplofte een zuurstoftank waardoor de bemanning niet op de maan kon landen, maar de maan moest omcirkelen en terug moest keren.
Vanuit een puur technisch standpunt, was er fundamenteel niets fout in de ontwerpen van het Apollo project. In elk project van dergelijke omvang en complexiteit vallen er problemen te verwachten en de les die NASA moest leren uit het eerdere vuur in een Apollo voertuig werd nog eens onderstreept: NASA moest beter problemen kunnen identificeren voordat ze konden gebeuren. De organisatie moest nog een grondig onderzoek doen naar ontwerpen en procedures, vooral met betrekking tot componenten die in contact kwamen met zuurstof en voortaan meer aandacht besteden aan aanpassingen in het ontwerp, kwaliteit van de productie en de betekenis van vreemde test-data. Maar het was niet nodig om terug te gaan naar het aller begin. Van een technisch standpunt, als het probleem eenmaal was geidentificeerd zou de oplossing snel gevonden zijn. Inderdaad, het ongeluk had NASA één van de gelimiteerde mogelijkheden tot een landing gekost en bijna ook het leven van drie astronauten, maar technisch gezien was NASA nog steeds op het goede pad en de concurrentie voor.
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'Houston we've had a problem'
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- Apollo XIV
- Apollo XIV was launched on January 31, 1971. The mission collected 96 pounds of Lunar rock.
- Apollo XV
- Apollo XV was carried into space on July 26, 1971. It was the first mission to use a Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV). This was the first vehicle to be used to travel on the surface of the moon.
- Apollo XVI
- Apollo XVI was launched on April 16, 1972. The mission used a LRV again to explore several craters and collect lunar rocks.
- Apollo XVII
- Apollo XVII was taken to the moon on December 7, 1972. The mission carried the first Scientist-Astronaut. All the previous astronauts were pilots of aircraft because until now, the motivation was just to beat the Russians to the moon. The mission performed many scientific experiments and the highest quality maps of the moon were produced.
The Apollo missions ended with Apollo XVII. Over 842 pounds of rock and soil were brought back from the moon for study and analysis. We learned a lot about the physical makeup of the moon and its atmosphere. Maybe the real significance of the Apollo missions was not scientific but historic. Astronomer Carl Sagan said
"The moon was the metaphor of the unattainable. And, look, we had 12 people walking on the surface of the Moon. Its historic significance is really hard to over stress.".
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