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Apollo Moon Landing
This timeline is here to show all the Apollo missions with their launch dates and some extra detail -
Apollo 1
Apollo 1 was the first mission of the US Apollo programme which was manned. It was originally given the name of AS-204 and the mission was planned to have lasted for 2 weeks. The date the rocket was supposed to be launched was the 21st of February but, unfortunately, there was a fire in the cabin during a rehearsal test on the 27th of January; the three crew members were killed. The link at the bottom is a report from the Senate on this incident.
https://history.nasa.gov/as204_senate_956.pdf -
Apollo 5
Apollo 5 was given the same name as Apollo 1 (AS-204), and was the first unmanned flight in the Apollo missions. The rocket was supposed to be launched in April 1967. The Apollo programme was shared with the 'Lunar Modules' (LM) and since the Lunar Module took a long time to make, Apollo 5 was delayed for more than ten months. -
Apollo 6
Apollo 6 (also known as AS-502) was an unmanned flight made in order to test the Saturn V launch vehicle. Its original objective was not to go to the moon but there were already problems with the rocket in the first two minutes and thirty seconds.
The reason why there's so little information on Apollo 6 was because Martin Luther King. Jr was shot the same day as the launch. Another reason could be that Apollo 6 wasn't as significant as Apollo 11 or 13. -
Apollo 7
Apollo 7 was the first space flight where a crew got taken into space. Apollo 7 overtook majority of Apollo 1's missions and many of its improvements were based of Apollo 1. The three crew members were: Walter Schirra, Donn Eisele and Walter Cunningham. This mission lasted around ten days and twenty hours. Apollo 7 didn't use the Saturn V booster tested by Apollo 6 but one called Saturn IB and the Lunar Module was not included either. -
Apollo 8
Apollo 8 was the second manned space flight in the Apollo Space programme. Apollo 8 was a successful mission in that it wasn't intended to land on the moon but "assess" it. It was the first spacecraft to leave and return to Earth safely. The three crew members were: Frank Borman, James Lovell and William Anders. Lovell wasn't supposed to go on this flight but Aldrin instead. However, because Aldrin had to have surgery on his back, Lovell went in his place. It also made ten orbits. -
Apollo 9
Apollo 9 is the third manned mission. The purpose of this flight was to test the new Lunar Module. The members of Apollo 9 were: James Mcdivitt, David Scott and Russell Schweickart. These three members were the backup crew for Apollo 1. Additionally, the backup crews for Apollo 8 and 9 were swapped and since it's tradition for the backup crew to be the main crew three flights later, this made Armstrong's crew to be the first successful crew to land on the moon. -
Apollo 10
Apollo 10 is the fourth manned mission and the second to orbit the moon. Apollo 10 was supposed to be like a rehearsal for Apollo 11. In addition to this, according to the Guiness World Records, Apollo 10 set the record for the highest speed which remained constant for a manned vehicle during the return from the moon on the 26th of May. Another fun fact was that Apollo 10's call signs were named after 'Peanuts' characters like Snoopy. The creator, Charles Schulz, also did some artwork for NASA. -
Apollo 11
Apollo 11 is perhaps the most famous of all the Apollo missions as it was the first ever spacecraft to successfully land on the moon. The three crew members were: Neil Armstrong, "Buzz" Aldrin and Michael Collins. Armstrong and Aldrin both brought back 21kg worth of lunar samples.
This link is a small video showing the time of the moon landing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMINSD7MmT4 -
Apollo 12
Apollo 12 was the sixth manned flight and the second one to land on the moon and was launched four months after Apollo 11. The difference between Apollo 11 and Apollo 12 was that Apollo 11 did not land where they were supposed to whereas Apollo 12 did. The three members were: Charles Conrad, Richard Gordon and Alan Bean. On the spacecraft, they were carrying the first colour television camera and used it when got out. However, Bean accidentally destroyed it by pointing it towards the Sun. -
Apollo 13
Apollo 13 was well-known for its famous line, "Houston ,we've had a problem here" said by Jack Swigert. It was an unsuccessful mission as there was an explosion in one of the oxygen tanks so the crew members were forced to orbit the moon and return to Earth ASAP.
One improvement from Apollo 13 was that all destratification fans from the tanks were removed completely. -
Apollo 14
This was the eighth manned mission and the third one to land on the moon successfully. This mission lasted around nine days. Since Apollo 13's mission was aborted, Apollo 14 carried out the same missions as it. When the crew members reached the moon, they left a plaque there and Alan Shepard played golf on the moon!
This link takes you to the 'Apollo 14 Mission Report'.
https://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a14/a14mr-a.htm -
Apollo 16
This was the tenth manned flight and the fifth to land on the moon. It was crewed by: John Young, Thomas Mattingly and Charles Duke. Mattingly was supposed to be on the Apollo 13 flight but he got the measles and was therefore replaced by Jack Swigert just three days before the launch. Young and Duke spent under three days on the lunar surface.
This video below shows Charles Duke trying to hammer a rock and failing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiJ54Jj2rck -
Apollo 17
Apollo 17 is the last mission of the US Apollo Space programme which was manned. There were plans for Apollo 18 and 19 but they got scrapped and were used for the 'Skylab' and 'Apollo-Soyuz' programmes. The 3 crew members were: Eugene Cernan, Ronald Evans and Harrison Schmitt. Fortunately, it was a successful mission where the crew spent three days on the surface of the moon. Apollo 17 also broke several records such as: 'longest time in lunar orbit' and 'the longest moon landing'.
