The Apollo program,also known as Project Apollo,was the United States human spaceflight program carried out by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA),which succeeded in preparing and landing the first humans on the Moon from 1968 to 1972. It was first conceived in 1960 during President Dwight D. Eisenhower's administration as a three-person spacecraft to follow the one-person Project Mercury,which put the first Americans in space. Apollo was later dedicated to President John F. Kennedy's national goal for the 1960s of "landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth" in an address to Congress on May 25,1961. It was the third US human spaceflight program to fly,preceded by the two-person Project Gemini conceived in 1961 to extend spaceflight capability in support of Apollo.
Apollo 5,also known as AS-204,was the uncrewed first flight of the Apollo Lunar Module (LM) that would later carry astronauts to the surface of the Moon. The Saturn IB rocket bearing the LM lifted off from Cape Kennedy on January 22,1968. The mission was successful,though due to programming problems an alternate mission to that originally planned was executed.
Apollo 6,also known as AS-502,was the third and final uncrewed flight in the United States' Apollo Program and the second test of the Saturn V launch vehicle. It qualified the Saturn V for use on crewed missions,and it was used beginning with Apollo 8 in December 1968.
The S-IVB was the third stage on the Saturn V and second stage on the Saturn IB launch vehicles. Built by the Douglas Aircraft Company,it had one J-2 rocket engine. For lunar missions it was fired twice:first for Earth orbit insertion after second stage cutoff,and then for translunar injection (TLI).
AS-203 was an uncrewed flight of the Saturn IB rocket on July 5,1966. It carried no command and service module,as its purpose was to verify the design of the S-IVB rocket stage restart capability that would later be used in the Apollo program to boost astronauts from Earth orbit to a trajectory towards the Moon. It achieved its objectives,but the stage was inadvertently destroyed after four orbits.
AS-202 was the second uncrewed,suborbital test flight of a production Block I Apollo command and service module launched with the Saturn IB launch vehicle. It was launched on August 25,1966,and was the first flight which included the spacecraft guidance,navigation control system and fuel cells. The success of this flight enabled the Apollo program to judge the Block I spacecraft and Saturn IB ready to carry men into orbit on the next mission,AS-204.
The Saturn family of American rockets was developed by a team of former German rocket engineers and scientists led by Wernher von Braun to launch heavy payloads to Earth orbit and beyond. The Saturn family used liquid hydrogen as fuel in the upper stages. Originally proposed as a military satellite launcher,they were adopted as the launch vehicles for the Apollo Moon program. Three versions were built and flown:the medium-lift Saturn I,the heavy-lift Saturn IB,and the super heavy-lift Saturn V.
Saturn-Apollo 3 (SA-3) was the third flight of the Saturn I launch vehicle,the second flight of Project Highwater,and part of the American Apollo program. The rocket was launched on November 16,1962,from Cape Canaveral,Florida.
AS-101 was the sixth flight of the Saturn I launch vehicle,which carried the first boilerplate Apollo spacecraft into low Earth orbit. The test took place on May 28,1964,lasting for four orbits. The spacecraft and its upper stage completed a total of 54 orbits before reentering the atmosphere and crashing in the Pacific Ocean on June 1,1964.
The Saturn IB was an American launch vehicle commissioned by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for the Apollo program. It uprated the Saturn I by replacing the S-IV second stage,with the S-IVB. The S-IB first stage also increased the S-I baseline's thrust from 1,500,000 pounds-force (6,700,000 N) to 1,600,000 pounds-force (7,100,000 N) and propellant load by 3.1%. This increased the Saturn I's low Earth orbit payload capability from 20,000 pounds (9,100 kg) to 46,000 pounds (21,000 kg),enough for early flight tests of a half-fueled Apollo command and service module (CSM) or a fully fueled Apollo Lunar Module (LM),before the larger Saturn V needed for lunar flight was ready.
The Saturn I was a rocket designed as the United States' first medium lift launch vehicle for up to 20,000-pound (9,100 kg) low Earth orbit payloads. The rocket's first stage was built as a cluster of propellant tanks engineered from older rocket tank designs,leading critics to jokingly refer to it as "Cluster's Last Stand". Its development was taken over from the Advanced Research Projects Agency in 1958 by the newly formed civilian NASA. Its design proved sound and flexible. It was successful in initiating the development of liquid hydrogen-fueled rocket propulsion,launching the Pegasus satellites,and flight verification of the Apollo command and service module launch phase aerodynamics. Ten Saturn I rockets were flown before it was replaced by the heavy lift derivative Saturn IB,which used a larger,higher total impulse second stage and an improved guidance and control system. It also led the way to development of the super-heavy lift Saturn V which carried the first men to landings on the Moon in the Apollo program.
AS-104 was the fourth orbital test of a boilerplate Apollo spacecraft,and the second flight of the Pegasus micrometeoroid detection satellite. It was launched by SA-8,the ninth Saturn I carrier rocket.
Apollo abort modes were procedures by which the nominal launch of an Apollo spacecraft,either the Saturn IB or Saturn V rocket,could be terminated. The abort of the flight allowed for the rescue of the crew if the rocket failed catastrophically. Depending on how far the flight had progressed,different procedure or modes would be used. In the history of the Apollo Program,none of the abort modes were ever used on any of the fifteen crewed Apollo spacecraft flights.
The Apollo Applications Program (AAP) was created as early as 1966 by NASA headquarters to develop science-based human spaceflight missions using hardware developed for the Apollo program. AAP was the ultimate development of a number of official and unofficial Apollo follow-on projects studied at various NASA labs. However,the AAP's ambitious initial plans became an early casualty when the Johnson Administration declined to support it adequately,partly in order to implement its Great Society set of domestic programs while remaining within a $100 billion budget. Thus,Fiscal Year 1967 ultimately allocated $80 million to the AAP,compared to NASA's preliminary estimates of $450 million necessary to fund a full-scale AAP program for that year,with over $1 billion being required for FY 1968. The AAP eventually led to Skylab,which absorbed much of what had been developed under Apollo Applications.
The Saturn INT-21 was a study for an American orbital launch vehicle of the 1970s. It was derived from the Saturn V rocket used for the Apollo program,using its first and second stages,but lacking the third stage. The guidance unit would be moved from the top of the third stage to the top of the second stage. The INT-21 was never flown.
The Saturn II was a series of American expendable launch vehicles,studied by North American Aviation under a NASA contract in 1966,derived from the Saturn V rocket used for the Apollo lunar program. The intent of the study was to eliminate production of the Saturn IB,and create a lower-cost heavy launch vehicle based on Saturn V hardware. North American studied three versions with the S-IC first stage removed:the INT-17,a two-stage vehicle with a low Earth orbit payload capability of 47,000 pounds (21,000 kg);the INT-18,which added Titan UA1204 or UA1207 strap-on solid rocket boosters,with payloads ranging from 47,000 pounds (21,000 kg) to 146,400 pounds (66,400 kg);and the INT-19,using solid boosters derived from the Minuteman missile first stage.
The Saturn C-4 was the fourth rocket in the Saturn C series studied from 1959 to 1962. The C-4 design was proposed in 1960 for a three-stage launch vehicle that could launch 99,000 kg (218,000 lb) to low Earth orbit and send 32,000 kg (70,000 lb) to the Moon via trans-lunar injection. It met the initial requirements for a lunar orbit rendezvous and lunar landing mission.
The Saturn C-3 was the third rocket in the Saturn C series studied from 1959 to 1962. The design was for a three-stage launch vehicle that could launch 45,000 kilograms (99,000 lb) to low Earth orbit and send 18,000 kilograms (40,000 lb) to the Moon via trans-lunar injection.
Saturn V is a retired American super heavy-lift launch vehicle developed by NASA under the Apollo program for human exploration of the Moon. The rocket was human-rated,had three stages,and was powered with liquid fuel. Flown from 1967 to 1973,it was used for nine crewed flights to the Moon,and to launch Skylab,the first American space station.
The Shuttle-Derived Heavy Lift Launch Vehicle ("HLV") was an alternate super heavy-lift launch vehicle proposal for the NASA Constellation program. It was first presented to the Augustine Commission on 17 June 2009.
