Apollo Missions to the Moon - Men Who Dared

Apollo 1 - Scheduled for launch the crew died on the pad during a flight simulation when fire broke out in the spacecraft. Grissom, White and Chaffee were killed with rescue workers close by Unable to free the crew everything was over within 5 minutes after the fire started.

Apollo 4 or Satun 501 would be the next Apollo mission. With 95 engines at liftoff everything could have gone wrong. It did not.

Apollo 5 tested the Lunar module and other important parts and controls

Apollo 6 came as the first unmanned flight designed to test the capability of the Saturn 5 launch vehicle to boast the Apollo spacecraft to the Moon and also retested the heatshield for re entry into the atmosphere.

The Red Danger: At this point in 1968 of careful preparations, the Russians announced they just returned a vesel called Zond 5. It had orbited the Moon and returned to Earth. Zond 6 soon followed and the race to be first on the Moon intensified.

Apollo 7 began its countdown while Werner von Braun announced that if the mission was a success then Apollo 8 would be launched to orbit the Moon. On day 8 the astronauts had a quarrel with Houston as they wanted to enter without spacesuits and helmits. Eventually Apollo 7 came home with the crew wearing suits but no helmits. Riding a pink cloud according to astronaut Schirra they landed 5 miles from the aircraft carrier Essex.

Apollo 8 was launched aboard the Saturn, the most powerful rocket ever used in the first twenty five years of manned flight. The risk was enormous as they had no lunar module to use if the engines failed. They would have been trapped in a circuit around the moon, circling the desolated place, gazng at the blue planet in the distance. Eventually said their farewells to parents and wives and children. When the time came they would sign off to Mission Control Houston before they would suffocate in a little aluminum coffin. However this would not happen. They reached the Moon and made 10 orbits on December 24 and 25 1968.The engines fired and they came home. Man had ventured to within 69 miles of the Moon.There was a suspicion the last 69 miles would be the hardest.

Apollo 9 tested the lunar spacesuit during a space walk and also tested the lunar module while another astronaut remained aboard the command module.

Apollo 10 completed a full dress rehearsal for a lunar landing by lowering themselves to within ten miles of the lunar surface.

Apollo 11 became the historic flight which saw the Eagle land on July 20 1969. Collins remained aboard the command module. Armstrong and Aldrin remained on the moon for 20 hours and took a single two hour moonwalk.

Apollo 12 landed on the Ocean of Storms. The astronauts spent 7.5 hours on the surface, a mere 300 meters from where the Surveyor 3 , an unmanned craft were.

Apollo 13 was aborted after an explosion aboard the command module Odyssey on April 13. The lunar module Aquarius became a lifeboat during a loop around the moon and a safe return.

Apollo 14 saw the lunar module Antares, namesake of the bright star in Scorpio landing at Fre Maoro. Two moonwalks clocked another 9 hours for human intervention on the moon.

Apollo 15 took with the Lunar Rover which allowed the men to spend 21 hours on the lunar surface. This included moonwalks and excursions with the rover. Another first was on the return one astronaut; Major Alfred Worden took a spacewalk to recover materials from an experiment bay on the Endeavors service module.

Apollo 16 landed near the crater Descartes with the Orion. The flight had to be shortened with a day due to a main engine problem of Casper, the command module. Regardless three days of exploration was possible.

Apollo 17 left Earth on the first night time launch. The LM America touched down near the Taurus Mountains, spending three days of exploration. The missions proved valuable, but the possibility of a fatal mission became a risk that could not be ignored. The Apollo missions came to an end and a new era of space exploration began with the launch of the first space station a year later.

Skylab was of to a bad start as it got damaged during the launch. It eventually burned out in the atmosphere many years later.

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