The Apollo Program:

An Overview

I believe 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 Earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important in the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish. - John F. Kennedy Special Joint Session of Congress May 25, 1961

Long before the very first flight of the Wright brothers, man has been interested in space, the universe, and more locally, the moon. Is there a man that lives in the moon? Is the moon made of green cheese? What are all the spots and bumps we can see on the moon, right here from earth? Could a man ever live on the moon? How would a man get to the moon and back again?

NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) was formed in 1958, and the first manned Apollo flight took place in October 1968. The first Apollo flight to land on the moon, Apollo 11, took place in July 1969. The last Apollo flight to land on the moon, Apollo 17, took place in December 1972. The last Apollo space flight ever was in July 1975.

The purpose of the Apollo program was to land humans on the moon, to return them safely back to earth, and to learn a myriad of things about the moon in the process. Six of the missions did exactly that. One more mission was supposed to land the astronauts on the moon, but because of problems in flight to the moon, they were only able to do a lunar ‘swingby’. Apollo 13 was the mission that never landed on the moon.

Apollos 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, and 17 all landed on the moon. Different tasks were performed in each mission; some tasks included soil testing, planting the American flag, bringing back parts of a previous probe, solar wind experiments, taking a multitude of photographs, testing the theory of gravity, and testing magnetic fields.

After the last lunar landing, total funding for the Apollo Space program was over 19.4 billion dollars. This was one third of NASA’s overall budget.

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