Category The Universe, Exploring the Universe, Solar System, The Moon, Space, Space Travel

Saturn V held the Apollo spacecraft, which was made up of three parts — the Command, Service and Lunar Modules. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin touched down on the Moon’s surface in the Lunar Module. As well as providing their transport, the Lunar Module was the astronauts’ home for the three days they spent on the Moon. Michael Collins remained in orbit aboard the Command and Service Module. When it was time to leave the Moon, Aldrin and Armstrong blasted back into orbit in the top half of the Lunar Module, before docking with the Command and Service Module and beginning the journey back to Earth.

Armstrong and Aldrin stayed on Moon for just more 21 hours-two-and-a-half hours of which were spent outside the Lunar Module exploring and conducting scientific experiments. At 1:53 pm on July 21 the astronauts lifted off from the Moon in the module’s ascent stage and then rendezvoused with Collins and the orbiting spacecraft. The three explorers fired away from lunar orbit on July 22 and returned to Earth on July 24.

The Apollo 11 Lunar Module ascent stage, with Astronauts Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin E. Aldrin Jr. aboard, is photographed from the Command and Service Modules (CSM) during rendezvous in lunar orbit. The Lunar Module (LM) was making its docking approach to the CSM. Astronaut Michael Collins remained with the CSM in lunar orbit while the other two crewmen explored the lunar surface. After docking, astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin transferred to Columbia with Collins, the LM ascent stage was jettisoned, and the return trip to Earth began.

The large, dark-colored area in the background is Smyth’s Sea, centered at 85 degrees east longitude and 2 degrees south latitude on the lunar surface (nearside). This view looks west. The Earth rises above the lunar horizon.

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The Apollo lunar programme was launched in 1961 by the President of the USA, John F Kennedy. He ambitiously claimed that human beings would set foot on the Moon by the end of the decade. It was one of the most complicated and technically challenging projects of the twentieth century, but resulted in a manned mission being sent to the Moon in 1969. A very powerful rocket, called the Saturn V, was built especially for the journey. It was able to carry the 52 tonnes of equipment needed for a successful visit to the lunar surface. Apollo 8 carried the first men around the Moon in 1968, but it was not until one year later, in July 1969, that humankind first set foot on the surface of the Moon.

In the method ultimately employed, lunar orbit rendezvous, a powerful launch vehicle (Saturn V rocket) placed a 50-ton spacecraft in a lunar trajectory. The spacecraft had three parts. The conical command module (CM) carried three astronauts. The service module (SM) was attached to the back of the CM and carried its fuel and power to form the command/service module (CSM). Docked to the front of the CSM was the lunar module (LM). One astronaut stayed in the CSM while the other two landed on the Moon in the LM. The LM had a descent stage and an ascent stage. The descent stage was left on the Moon, and the astronauts returned to the CSM in the ascent stage, which was discarded in lunar orbit. The LM was flown only in the vacuum of space, so aerodynamic considerations did not affect its design. (Thus, the LM has been called the first “true” spacecraft.) Before reentering Earth’s atmosphere, the SM was jettisoned to burn up. The CM splashed down in the ocean. The lunar orbit rendezvous had the advantages of requiring only one rocket and of saving fuel and mass since the LM did not need to return to Earth.

Uncrewed missions testing Apollo and the Saturn rocket began in February 1966. The first crewed Apollo flight was delayed by a tragic accident, a fire that broke out in the Apollo 1 spacecraft during a ground rehearsal on January 27, 1967, killing astronauts Virgil Grissom, Edward White, and Roger Chaffee. NASA responded by delaying the program to make changes such as not using a pure oxygen atmosphere at launch and replacing the CM hatch with one that could be opened quickly.

In October 1968, following several uncrewed Earth-orbit flights, Apollo 7 made a 163-orbit flight carrying a full crew of three astronauts. Apollo 8 carried out the first step of crewed lunar exploration: from Earth orbit it was injected into a lunar trajectory, completed lunar orbit, and returned safely to Earth. Apollo 9 carried out a prolonged mission in Earth orbit to check out the LM. Apollo 10 journeyed to lunar orbit and tested the LM to within 15.2 km (9.4 miles) of the Moon’s surface. Apollo 11, in July 1969, climaxed the step-by-step procedure with a lunar landing; on July 20 astronaut Neil Armstrong and then Edwin (“Buzz”) Aldrin became the first humans to set foot on the Moon’s surface.

Apollo 13, launched in April 1970, suffered an accident caused by an explosion in an oxygen tank but returned safely to Earth. Remaining Apollo missions carried out extensive exploration of the lunar surface, collecting 382 kg (842 pounds) of Moon rocks and installing many instruments for scientific research, such as the solar wind experiment and the seismographic measurements of the lunar surface. Beginning with Apollo 15, astronauts drove a lunar rover on the Moon. Apollo 17, the final flight of the program, took place in December 1972. In total, 12 American astronauts walked on the Moon during the six successful lunar landing missions of the Apollo program.

Apollo CSMs were used in 1973 and 1974 in the Skylab program to take astronauts to an orbiting space station. In July 1975 an Apollo CSM docked with a Soviet Soyuz in the last flight of an Apollo spacecraft.

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Gravity on the moon is only one-sixth of that on Earth, which means that astronauts can jump several metres effortlessly. There is no atmosphere on the Moon, so sound cannot be carried even over a small distance. Radios have to be used to communicate over a few centimetres. Because there is no weather, the astronauts’ footprints will last for thousands of years.

The moon has no atmosphere no weather and no oceans of water. Its surface is in a perpetual vacuum. Pairs of astronauts have lived on its surface only up to three days at a time, in the tiny Lunar Module of the Apollo program. 

Only 12 humans (the crews of Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17) have ever walked on the moon’s surface. Because the moon’s gravity is only one-sixth that of the Earth’s gravity, Apollo astronauts had to tread carefully or else risk stumbling or falling. They ultimately perfected a bouncing gait and bunny hops to walk along the lunar surface. 

One of the best places to set up a moon base turns out to be the lunar south pole, which has an enormous reserve of water ice and a relatively stable surface temperature around 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 Celsius).

Because it lacks an atmosphere, the moon undergoes tremendous daily swings in surface temperature, from a daytime average of 253 degrees F (123 C) to minus 387 F (minus 233 C) at night. 

Less than one month after Sputnik 1 had been launched, the Soviets claimed a second amazing achievement by sending the first living creature into orbit. Sputnik 2, which blasted off from Earth in November 1957, contained a small dog called Laika. The spacecraft was specially designed for the dog, with life-support facilities and a cradle. Laika survived the launch and the journey into space, but died when her supply of oxygen ran out in orbit. Three years later, in August 1960, two more dogs, named Belka and Strelka, became the first creatures to survive the journey into space and return, travelling aboard Sputnik 5.

Laika (Russian: 1954 – 3 November 1957) was a Soviets Space dog who became one of the first animals in space, and the first animal to orbit the Earth. Laika, a stray mongrel from the streets of Moscow, was selected to be the occupant of the Soviet spacecraft Sputnik 2 that was launched into outer space on 3 November 1957.

Little was known about the impact of spaceflight on living creatures at the time of Laika’s mission, and the technology to de-orbit had not yet been developed, so Laika’s survival was never expected. Some scientists believed humans would be unable to survive the launch or the conditions of outer space, so engineers viewed flights by animals as a necessary precursor to human missions. The experiment aimed to prove that a living passenger could survive being launched into orbit and endure a micro-g environment, paving the way for human spaceflight and providing scientists with some of the first data on how living organisms react to spaceflight environments.

Laika died within hours from overheating, possibly caused by a failure of the central R-7 sustainer to separate from the payload. The true cause and time of her death were not made public until 2002; instead, it was widely reported that she died when her oxygen ran out on day six or, as the Soviet government initially claimed, she was euthanised prior to oxygen depletion.

On 11 April 2008, Russian officials unveiled a monument to Laika. A small monument in her honour was built near the military research facility in Moscow that prepared Laika’s flight to space. It portrayed a dog standing on top of a rocket. She also appears on the Monument to the Conquerors of Space in Moscow.

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LUNA 2 was launched from the USSR in 1959, and was the first probe to visit the Moon’s surface, although it did not so much land as crash. Ranger 7, an American probe, also crashed on the Moon’s surface in 1964. It managed to take over 4000 close-up pictures. Luna 9 was the first probe to land successfully on the Moon in 1966. It sent back television pictures of the barren surface.

In January 1959, a small Soviet sphere bristling with antennas, Luna 1 was the first spacecraft to escape Earth’s gravity, a huge feat. Although Luna 1 did not reach the moon’s surface, as was likely intended, the spacecraft flew within about 4,000 miles of it. Its suite of scientific equipment revealed for the first time that the moon had no magnetic field.

Later in 1959, Luna 2 became the first spacecraft to land on the moon’s surface, making impact near the Aristides, Archimedes, and Autolycus craters. A third Luna mission subsequently captured the first, blurry, images of the far side of the moon.

Nine NASA Ranger spacecraft’s, launched between 1961 and 1965, gave scientists the first close-up looks at the moon’s surface. The Ranger missions were kamikaze-style; the spacecraft were engineered to streak straight toward the moon and capture as many images as possible before crashing onto its surface. In 1962, Ranger 4 was the first Ranger spacecraft to hit its target, the moon. Unfortunately, Ranger 4 slammed into the far side of the moon before collecting any scientific data.

Two years later, however, Ranger 7 streaked toward the moon and captured more than 4,000 photos in the 15 minutes before it smashed onto the surface. Images from all the Ranger missions, particularly Ranger 9, highlighted the moon’s rough terrain and the potential challenges of finding a smooth landing site.

In 1966, the Soviet spacecraft Luna 9 overcame the moon’s topographic hurdles and became the first vehicle to soft-land safely on the surface. The small craft was stocked with scientific and communications equipment and photographed a ground-level lunar panorama. Luna 10 launched later that year and became the first spacecraft to successfully orbit the moon.

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The soviet Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin was the first person to be launched into space. He travelled aboard Vostok 1, and blasted off from Earth in April 1961. After completing one orbit, he returned safely to Earth. John Glenn was the first American to be sent into space in 1962.

April 12 was already a huge day in space history twenty years before the launch of the first shuttle mission. On that day in 1961, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin (left, on the way to the launch pad) became the first human in space, making a 108-minute orbital flight in his Vostok 1 spacecraft. Newspapers like The Huntsville Times (right) trumpeted Gagarin’s accomplishment.

Mercury astronaut Alan Shepard became the first American in space less than a month later. The first cooperative human space flight project between the United States and the Soviet Union took place in 1975. The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project was designed to test the compatibility of rendezvous and docking systems for American and Soviet spacecraft and to open the way for future joint manned flights.

Since 1993, the U.S. and Russia have worked together on a number of other space flight projects. The Space Shuttle began visiting the Russian Mir space station in 1994, and in 1995 Norm Thagard became the first U.S. astronaut to take up residency on Mir. Seven U.S. astronauts served with their Russian counterparts aboard the orbiting Mir laboratory from 1995 to 1998. The experience gained from the Mir cooperative effort, as well as lessons learned, paved the way for the International Space Station.

In-orbit construction on the Station began in November 1998, and it has been staffed non-stop with international crews since November 2000. The first Station crew, made up of U.S. commander Bill Shepherd and cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev, was launched on board a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. The crew returned to Earth on the Space Shuttle Discovery in March 2001.

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