Apollo Program

Project Apollo was a series of human spaceflight missions undertaken by the United States of America using the Apollo spacecraft and Saturn launch vehicle, conducted during the years 1961–1972. more...

It was devoted to the goal of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth within the decade of the 1960s. This goal was achieved with the Apollo 11 mission in July 1969. The program continued into the early 1970s to carry out the initial hands-on scientific exploration of the Moon, with a total of six successful landings. As of 2006, there has not been any further human spaceflight beyond low earth orbit. The later Skylab program and the joint American-Soviet Apollo-Soyuz Test Project used equipment originally produced for Apollo, and are often considered to be part of the overall program. The name Apollo, like earlier manned space-flight programs, was named after a god from classical civilizations, and comes from one of the Greek gods.

Background

The Apollo Program was originally conceived late in the Eisenhower administration as a follow-on to the Mercury program, doing advanced manned earth-orbital missions. In fact, it became the third program, following Gemini. The Apollo Program was dramatically reoriented to an aggressive lunar landing goal by President Kennedy with his announcement at a special joint session of Congress on May 25, 1961:

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