We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.

TEXT OF PRESIDENT JOHN KENNEDY'S RICE STADIUM MOON SPEECH SEPTEMBER 12th, 1962

On May 25th, 1961 President John F. Kennedy announced a goal that would change the world forever. With in the decade, it would be the United States goal to land a man on the moon. During the Cold War, the United States and the USSR were pitted against each other with space exploration. The Soviets had put a satellite into orbit before us. They had even sent a man into space, to orbit the Earth, before us. However, we kept our head up, and continued to look forward. NASA would set up Project Apollo, to place a man on the moon, before the soviets could triumph against us in another space race.

Before Apollo, we had only recently boosted men to space, and they orbited the Earth. The moon was farther away, and would require a whole new branch of thought if we intended to place a man on the moon, or even reach the moon with a spacecraft.

To reach the moon, we needed more technology in space. We needed to create a program to explore the moon. We needed to see if a man could even survive the moon, and work in the lunar environment. So these were the objectives of Project Apollo.

Man-less Missions• We had to test our spacecraft

with out men inside, before we could sending the men to the moon.

• New docking mechanisms and the three stage Saturn V rocket were tested

Apollo 1• January 27th,

1967 we believed we were ready to finally send men into space with the goal of reaching the moon in later missions.

• On a rehearsal of the launch, a spark ignited and a flash fire terminated the mission, and the crew.

Gus Grissom, Edward White, and Roger Chafee, the crew of AS 204, later to be remembered as Apollo 1

Apollo 7• In October 1968, Apollo 7 launched, the first manned mission since Apollo 1. It carried Walter Schirra, Donn Eisele, and Walt Cunningham

• The mission tested the Command and Service module, and found all systems to be working perfectly.

• In the middle of the mission, the crew caught colds, and mucus in the zero gravity environment did not drain from their head, and left them very congested.

The engines worked so well in space that it caused Walter Schirra (pictured) to yell “Yabadabadoo!“ as Fred Flintstone would.

Apollo 10

• May 1969, Eugene Cernan, John Young, Thomas Stafford left Earth with the lunar module.

• Orbited the moon with the lunar module attached.

• Did everything Apollo 11 would do, except land on the moon.

• Even a few of the engines on the lunar module were tested firing in space.

• 192 hours and 3 minutes

Citations

• All images were retrieved from nasaimages.org

• All information was retrieved from http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/index.html