To the Moon
To the Moon
The Apollo Program was a NASA spaceflight endeavor that landed the first humans on Earth’s moon. Conceived during the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower, Apollo began in earnest after US President John F. Kennedy announced his support for a manned moon landing on May 25, 1961, as part of a special address to a joint session of Congress:
“ … 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. 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.”
Kennedy’s goal was accomplished during the Apollo 11 mission on July 20, 1969 with the landing of astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, while Michael Collins orbited above. Five subsequent Apollo missions also landed astronauts on the Moon, the last in December 1972. In these six Apollo spaceflights twelve men walked on the Moon. These are the only times humans have landed on another celestial body.
The Apollo Program ran from 1961 until 1975, and was the US civilian space agency’s third human spaceflight program (following Mercury and Gemini). Apollo used Apollo spacecraft and Saturn launch vehicles, which were later used for the Skylab program and the joint American-Soviet Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. These later programs are thus often considered to be part of the overall Apollo program.
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