Apollo Program
The Apollo Program was the most aggressive and daring space program ever attempted by the United States. The goal? Put a man on the moon in less than 10 years . . . and bring him home.
Courtesy of NASA
In 1961 the United States was not leading the space race. Just over a month after Yuri Gagarin’s historic flight, President John F. Kennedy made his inspirational speech to congress. It was both a call to action for the American people and a challenge to the USSR.
The Apollo 11 landing on July 20, 1969 is often seen as the fulfillment of President Kennedy’s challenge. Though with “and bring him home” the challenge was fulfilled when the astronauts were recovered by the USS Hornet from the capsule’s landing zone in the Pacific Ocean 4 days later.
The Apollo program, also known as Project Apollo, was NASA’s third manned space program following on the heels of Mercury and Gemini. The program put 12 men on the moon. An unparalleled achievement.
The mission numbers are a bit wonky, the reason for this is that after the Apollo 1 tragedy the planned mission schedule was revised extensively. Test flights of the Saturn rockets were dubbed as Apollo missions. Manned missions resumed with Apollo 7.
A few Apollo statistics:
Cost: $25.4 Billion in 1973 (equivalent to $145.4 billion in 2019)
Duration: 1961 to 1972
Missions: 12 manned, 6 unmanned
Launch Vehicles: Saturn IB, Saturn V