The Apollo Missions

In doing research on space exploration and specifically the Apollo Missions, I have learned a lot about the purpose and significance behind this exploration. The goals set by NASA for these missions was to “establish technology to meet other national interests in space, achieve preeminence in space for the United States and develop man's capability to work in the lunar environment”. The motivation to get a man to the moon (Apollo 11) had a lot to do with the Cold War with the Soviet Union. President John F. Kennedy gave a speech that was aimed to convince the people that it was time to advance and play our part in the world. Thousands of people worked on this project, but it was really a national effort. Several questions arose as each of the

Gemini was a two manned spaceflight that would orbit Earth for two weeks before landing (two weeks as it was the time for a rocket to make a round trip to the moon). Gemini was a success as all ten of the manned spaceflights had accomplished their goals. The Apollo Program had begun in 1961. With the confident space program at a high, the presence of excitement was expected during the first step in the Apollo Program. Known as Apollo 204, on January 27, 1967, tragedy struck. At 6:31 in the evening, shouting was heard as the command module of the Saturn 1-B was engulfed in flames, killing the three astronauts (Breuer 178). Said to be a short circuit, the capsule was completely destroyed, but the rest of the rocket was unharmed. The tragedy shocked all of America, freezing the space program for months. The time left to land man on the moon had become that much shorter. Many Apollo missions later, on July 16, 1969, Apollo 11 lifted off hoping to finish the Space Race. Four days later, Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin were the first men to walk on the moon, defeating the Soviets (“Cold” para. 9). Americans now could say they had beaten the Soviets, showing pride in the country. They who have been behind in the Space Race were now

Ever since humanity has been able to look up and view the stars, forever gaining a better view, mankind has desired to go to space. Slowly gaining the ability of mobility, mankind has invented the wheel, then the automobile, and then aircraft. However, what lies in our recent past is the greatest achievement in reaching new frontiers so far - that is, reaching the moon. The Apollo 11 is responsible for accomplishing the basic mission of the Apollo Program; that is, to land two men on the lunar surface and return them safely to earth.

The moon landing mission marked a new technological era for the United States. This amazing feat ushered in an age of pride and intelligence for the American people that swept across the nation. This fateful success gave birth to America’s interest in space and buried itself into our very culture and our long and adventurous history. The Apollo 11’s successful mission has also greatly affected current technologies today. In order to further understand the mission’s impact, research on the Apollo 11 mission’s preparation, the mission itself, and the technologies it impacted, is needed.

The Apollo 13 is NASA’s seventh Apollo space mission taking human beings into the outer space. The Launch took place at Kennedy Space Center. The crew consisted of three men, James A. Lovell, John L. Swigert, and Fred W. Haise. “Houston, we have a problem…” was the saying that leads to the tragic event that took place on April 11, 1970.

Apollo was a program at NASA that traveled to the moon. There were several different Apollo missions over the course of several years. These missions were centered around the moon and learning more about it. John F Kennedy actually inspired the Apollo missions by challenging NASA to go to the moon within a decade, and they did! (David Hitt/NASA) Apollo eventually had 11 spaceflights and 12 astronauts walked on the moon. David Hitt from NASA stated,” The first four flights tested the equipment used in the Apollo Program. Six of the other seven flights landed on the moon. The first Apollo flight happened in 1968. The first moon landing took place in 1969. The last moon landing was in 1972.” (David Hitt/NASA) The first man to walk on the moon

The Apollo space missions of the 60’s and 70’s mark a time when space was the final frontier and the only destination world leaders had their view set upon. The cold war in full swing, each nation wanted to prove its dominance without total world destruction, was the single greatest driving force in the space race to the moon. But how do we invent, build, and use a set of technologies barely dreamed of by the most elite scientists? Rockets, computers, practical space suits, and a lunar lander/space shuttle all had to be built nearly from scratch with almost no past experience. The history of rockets comes from German scientists in the Second World War seeking ways to deliver explosives to enemy forces (Funk). We asked many of these experienced

“Nothing since Apollo has come close to the excitement that was generated by those astronauts: Armstrong, Aldrin, and the ten others who followed them”. (“Apollo”). Being launched on the fourteenth of July in the year 1969, Apollo 11 had created a whole new period of space exploration and technology, defeating the Soviets in the Space Race, and bringing the end of the Cold War closer and to our favor. The Apollo 11 Mission had taken a major part in forming what is now today’s science, technology, and society.

In the movie Apollo 13 three astronauts go up to space in the space craft odyssey and encounter many problems. The astronauts, Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise were on a rushed mission to go to the moon when Jack went to go stir the oxygen tanks and one of them exploded. The explosion led to a whole host of problems. The astronauts had to abort the mission and focus on a safe return home. A monomyth plotline is when a person leaves a place, encounters obstacles and comes back a different person. This essay will explain how Apollo 13 follows the monomyth plotline.

Apollo 13 was the 7th mission in the American Apollo Space Program and launched on April 11, 1970. Apollo 13 was the third mission that had planned to land on the moon and its location was in the Fra Mauro crater. However, two days into the flight, an oxygen tank exploded forcing the crew to orbit the moon without landing and return to earth.

My research is about Apollo missions and how these missions changed space exploration. In the Year 1961 President John F. Kennedy committed the United States, to land men on the moon and bring them back safely to the earth. This challenge had not precedent in the history of humanity, the motivation for such ambitious endeavor according to the NASA was achieving preeminence in space, but the scientific goals were developing a program to explore the moon and man’s capability to work in the lunar environment. I think that these were some of the goals at that moment, but the consequences of these missions is more significant for the human kind. As human kind we prove that we can break bounds and we can explore beyond our earth. In this exploration

I choose for my discovery one of the Apollo space missions. The one mission that I have a keen interest in has been the Apollo 11 Mission. Apollo 11 was one of NASA’s mission to get 12 astronauts in space and to land on the moon. The Mission control team did many of the behind-the-scenes. Many of the team members were young so they were able to bring some new ideas for the program. One mission control engineer gave this quote about the young team, “Space was such a new thing that they were not willing to risk their careers on space, so we were forced to have a relatively young team. By Apollo, we had to bring in young people because the people, who did [the earlier] Gemini [space program] were technical dinosaurs by that time." (Weiss).

The topic I decided to learn more about for this activity was about NASA'S Apollo missions. I got my information from an article on their website titled "Apollo 11 Mission overview." The main motivation behind the original Apollo mission was to explore the moon and "develop mans capability to work in the Lunar environment." It was during Apollo 11, this fifth Apollo mission that America landed on the moon. This was extremely significant because it was the first time humans had ever been on the moon and were able to explore it. Data collected from this has been used to assist scientist in studying and understanding life beyond earth. This discovery was only possible because of all of the previous Apollo missions that failed and better prepared

I chose to do research on the Space Exploration: Apollo missions. I know that by going into space we were able to discover many things; learn more about our universe and our place with in it. I discovered that the primary driving force behind the Apollo project was geopolitical rather than scientific; but Science has been and will continue to be a major beneficiary to human space flight. "Exploratory space flight puts scientific ideas, scientific thinking, and scientific vocabulary in the public eye. It elevates the general level of intellectual inquiry." The whole scientific enterprise has the greatest possible interest in encouraging this process. Because of science they were able to do analysis of the material brought back from the moon,

The space exploration of Apollo was the chance to achieve something that mankind has not achieved before. The idea was to increase the space exploration program. The significance of the exploration is achieving things in space that no man had achieved before. Landing on the moon would be an achievement that no person has ever achieved before. This took a great deal of research on the part of engineers for building the ship. In addition it required years of training for the astronauts involved in the missions. Engineers had to build a ship that was capable of a taking off and entering space in a safe manner. In addition the ship needed to have the ability to enter the earth’s atmosphere from space and land safely. The motivation behind