5 years of exploration
1967 APOLLO 1
The road to the moon began in tragedy. On Jan. 27, 1967, Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Ed White and Roger B. Chaffee were in the rocket’s command module, doing a run-through test for a launch about a month later. A rotten smell permeated the interior and communication over the radio was difficult. One of the astronauts testily asked, “How are we going to get to the moon if we can’t talk between two or three buildings?” The glitch would turn out to be something more serious — at 6:31 p.m., sparks connected with foam pads and nylon netting. Somebody inside the module shouted, “We’ve got a fire in the cockpit!”
Due to the pressurized environment, the blaze spread rapidly. All three astronauts perished. In the tragedy’s wake, President Lyndon B. Johnson said, “They gave their lives in the nation’s service . . . Mourn with all of us the tragic loss of three gallant and dedicated airmen.”
1968 APOLLO 2-6
After a nearly eightmonth hiatus, NASA decided to skip Apollos 2 and 3. Apollo 4 went up, unmanned, for close to nine hours before splashing down in the Pacific. Apollo 5, the initial test of the lunar module in space, blasted off (also unmanned) on Jan. 22, 1968, and stayed up for 11 hours before dropping into waters near Guam. Apollo 6, the final unmanned flight, went into space on April 4, 1968. It tested the craft’s heat shield and raised NASA’s comfort level
for a manned flight.
APOLLO 7
The first mission that successfully carried a crew into space, Apollo 7 blasted off on Oct. 11, 1968. It lasted nearly 11 days. It marked the debut of freeze-dried space food. Even though the astronauts got irritable in space — not helped by the toilet system taking 30 minutes to use — the mission buoyed confidence for a flight to the moon.
APOLLO 8
A major breakthrough. Going up on Dec. 21, 1968, it was the first manned flight to pass beyond low Earth orbit. More significantly, the astronauts circled the Moon 10 times. Americans felt all the more connected when, on Christmas Eve, crew members read verses from the book of Genesis via a live television feed. Time magazine named the space explorers Men of the Year.
1969 APOLLO 9
This mission proved that a crew could fly the lunar module on their own and then link it with the command and service module that could safely return them to Earth. Launched on March 3, 1969, it lasted 10 days.
APOLLO 10
The dress rehearsal. After launching on May 18, 1969, it spent eight days in space, orbiting the moon 31 times. Charles M. Schulz brought levity by drawing NASA-approved Snoopy artwork related to this mission. Descending at 24,791 mph, Apollo 10 set a speed record in Guinness World Records.
APOLLO 11
The culmination of all the hard work and three lost lives, Apollo 11 launched on July 16, 1969, and landed on July 20. With a flag planted on the lunar surface, America clinched its space race against the Soviet Union.
APOLLO 12
Blasting off on Nov. 14, 1969, the rocket handled two lightning strikes and managed a transmission of color footage back to Earth. But the show ended after a mis-aimed lens got fried by the sun.
1970 APOLLO 13
After two successful manned missions to the moon, getting up there may have looked easy. The crew of Apollo 13 learned otherwise. The spacecraft launched on April 11, 1970, and it was 200,000 miles in the air when things went awry. Exposed wires caused an oxygen tank to explode. Astronaut Jack Swigert first muttered the understatement, “Houston, we’ve had a problem here.” Cabin temperature plummeted toward freezing. Water was rationed and food became inedible. The astronauts retreated to the lunar module. Nearly six days after blasting off, worse for wear but still alive, they made a miracle drop in the South Pacific Ocean.
1971 APOLLO 14
After a 10-month breather, NASA sent up its next manned rocket on Jan. 31, 1971. Flight commander Alan B. Shepard, 48, was the oldest US astronaut at the time. Photos were taken of a future moon landing site and Shepard whacked golf balls off of the low-gravity surface. Several hundred seeds, brought on the nine-day mission, were germinated on Earth and dubbed Moon Trees.
APOLLO 15
Launched on July 26, 1971, it carried a Lunar Exploration Vehicle, or moon buggy. They brought home a souvenir from their 13-day trip: 170 pounds of the moon’s surface.
APOLLO 16
This crew spent more time on the moon and ventured farther from The battery-powered lunar rover made its debut on the Apollo 15 mission. the command module. During the return — on a mission that went from April 16 - 27, 1971 — Thomas Mattingly performed a space walk as he ventured out of the ship to retrieve an exterior camera in advance of a South Pacific splashdown.
1972 APOLLO 17
The final mission ran from Dec. 7-19, 1972. The program ended in style with the longest moonwalk and a record-breaking 75 lunar orbits. While three more flights were planned, former NASA engineer John Schuessler told Popular Mechanics that they were scuttled due to budget considerations and general agreement that overall goals had been realized.