The History of the Apollo Program

"That's one small step for man. One giant leap for mankind."
- Neil Armstrong

Few words have ever caught the human spirit so effectively as these, and without the Apollo space program they would never have been uttered.

Program History:

The Apollo space program was born during the cold war and at the peak of the "space race" between the United States of America and the former Soviet Union. The Soviets had put the 1st artificial satellite into space (Sputnik I) as well as the 1st human (Yuri Gagarin). The United States was determined to beat the Soviets to the moon, in order to reverse the appearance of Soviet supremacy in space technology.

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy announced the United States' intent when he said, "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 the Earth."

Because of its response to the Cold War, the Apollo Program captured the American imagination and enjoyed strong political support.

It was a convergence of factors, such as political necessity, scientific and technical capabilities and a prosperous economy, that made a far reaching project like Apollo possible. Because of the nature of these factors at the time, Apollo's goals were more than just landing Americans on the Moon and returning them safely home again.

Project Goals:

The Apollo Project goals as defined by NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) were:

* To establish the technology to meet other national interests in space.
* To achieve preeminence in space for the United States.
* To carry out a program of scientific exploration of the Moon.
* To develop man's capability to work in the lunar environment. [1]


UNMANNED MISSIONS:

The Apollo program began with the doomed Apollo 1, in which all members of the 3-man crew (Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom, Ed White, and Roger B. Chaffee) were killed in a fire during a training exercise. After this incident, it was obvious to NASA that there were serious design flaws that needed to be overcome before they could safely put humans into space.