Apollo Program Research Paper

The Apollo Program was a very successful program for science and it opened many doors for the future. There were many missions involved and it resulted in the first men ever to walk on the moon. It was a historical event not only from how it was developed, to each and every mission, and what resulted after the program. This program was developed to achieve something great and through trial and error, along with some disasters, they managed to do so. The plan for this program was a series of steps, “separated by missions or the plateaus of the program” (“Plans and Progress in Space Flight”). If it was to be decided that a the next mission was not able to go they already had alternative missions ready that were inspected and ready to go. They

Only six of the missions managed to do this; flights 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17(Williams). Apollo one never was able to be launched. During a test before launching the cockpit of the module caught fire and Edward White; the command pilot, Gus Grissom; the commander, and Roger Chaffee; the pilot were all killed during the fire. The module was then impounded and got inspected before any other flights took place(Williams). There were no designated missions assigned as Apollo two and three. Apollo four was an unmanned mission with a goal of testing the aspects of the Saturn V launch vehicle and it also returned with pictures taken of the earth. Apollo five was another unmanned mission and was the first test flight of the lunar module. It was used to verify working ascent and descent stages, propulsion system, and restart operations before any manned flights were launched. Apollo six was another unmanned flights that continued to test different systems and scenarios before they sent up a manned

Apollo seven was the first flight with a crew. They had to orbit the earth and demonstrate multiple photograph and medical experiments during the flight(Williams). Apollo eight, nine, and ten were all used to test the crew and make sure everyone and everything was capable of handling the missions(Loff). Apollo eleven was the first mission to actually land on the moon and have mankind step foot on the moon. It was a successful flight to the moon and also back to the earth. Apollo twelve was the second lunar landing with a crew and the main objective was to perform exploration