Gregory P. Kennedy is a former Associate Curator for Manned Space Flight at the National Air and Space Museum and past Director of the Space Center in Alamogordo, New Mexico. Mr. Kennedy has authored 8 books, including Apollo to the Moon (Chelsea House, 1992.)
Part One: The Decision to go to the Moon
President John F. Kennedy stood before a joint session of Congress on May 25, 1961, and declared “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.” At the time of Kennedy’s declaration, only one American had been in space, and that was a brief 15-minute suborbital mission.
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Part Two: Apollo 7 Mission
President John F. Kennedy stood before a joint session of Congress on May 25, 1961, and declared “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.” At the time of Kennedy’s declaration, only one American had been in space, and that was a brief 15-minute suborbital mission.
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Part Three: Saturn V
President John F. Kennedy stood before a joint session of Congress on May 25, 1961, and declared “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.” At the time of Kennedy’s declaration, only one American had been in space, and that was a brief 15-minute suborbital mission.
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Part Four: Apollo 8 Mission
After Apollo 7, NASA announced a bold plan for Apollo 8, the first manned flight with the Saturn V. This flight was originally planned to test the Lunar Module (LM) in Earth orbit, but progress on the lander was lagging. The LM test would be postponed by one flight. Instead, the next mission, piloted by Frank F. Borman II, James A. Lovell, Jr., and William A. Anders, would orbit the Moon!
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Part Five: Apollo Command and Service Modules
For lunar landing missions, Apollo used two spacecraft: the Lunar Module (LM) and the Command and Service Module (CSM). The CSM remained in lunar orbit with one astronaut on board while two crewmembers descended to the Moon’s surface in the LM. The CSM comprised two segments: the conical Command Module (CM) and the cylindrical Service Module (SM). North American Aviation, later North American Rockwell, built the CSM.
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Part Six: Apollo 9 Mission
Apollo 9 began on March 3, 1969. Crewed by James A. McDivitt, David R. Scott and Russell L. “Rusty” Schweickart, this was the first piloted test of the Lunar Module (LM) in space. Although it was an Earth-orbital flight, Apollo 9 used a Saturn V. Since there would be two spacecraft in orbit with astronauts on board simultaneously NASA allowed the craft to be named.
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Part Seven: Space Suits for Apollo
Project Apollo required astronauts to walk on the Moon, which established a wide range of requirements for space suits.
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Part Eight: Apollo 10 Mission
Apollo 10, which began on May 18, 1969, was the dress rehearsal for the lunar landing. Astronauts Thomas P. Stafford and Eugene A. “Gene” Cernan, in their Lunar Module (LM), named “Snoopy,” flew within ten miles of the lunar surface while John W. Young orbited overhead in the Command Module (CM), which they named “Charlie Brown.”
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Part Nine: Apollo 11 Mission
Following the successful completion of Apollo 10, the world's attention focused on preparations for the next flight. Apollo 11 would land on the Moon! If all went as planned, NASA would beat President Kennedy’s lunar landing deadline by nearly six months.
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