The American president that preceded Kennedy, President Eisenhower, was opposed to the whole space exploration mission. He did not see this extravagant stunt as a way for Americans to surpass the Russians. He termed this as the lunar space race. There were two main factors that initiated this race to the moon. The first factor was the capability of Communist Russia to achieve a lunar landing. President Kennedy did not want the United States to lag behind Russia especially when the competition has already achieved its first orbital flight that encircled the earth. The second factor was the belief of a missile gap between the two countries. The communist Soviets clearly have an advantage in space rocketry over the democratic Americans and this prompted a struggle between the two on which of them will reign supreme. The idea that a missile gap existed brought fear to Kennedy and what could happen to the United States if it were to lose the Cold War.

The Apollo space program had but one goal—for Americans reach the moon first. After several space crafts and failed missions, man successfully stepped on the moon. It was the first time in history that a human being landed on an extraterrestrial mass. On July 20, 1969, on board Apollo 11, Neil Armstrong became the first man to land on the moon. Eleven other astronauts came after that. The United States landing on the moon ended the lunar race with the Soviets. The American success, as Logsdon noted, “Tarnished the image of socialist competence and diminished Soviet standing in world affairs”.

At present, the United States and the People’s Republic of Russia are working together on space explorations rather than as competitors.

Apollo Space Program Tribute

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The selected crew members for this manned spaceflight were Lt. Col. Virgil Grissom as command pilot, Lt. Col. Edwards White as senior pilot, and Navy Lt. Roger Chaffee as pilot. Regrettably, these American astronauts never got leave for space as tragedy struck before the space shuttle even took off. On the launch pad during the pre-flight test for Apollo 1 on February 21, 19687, these three men lost their lives when a fire swept through the command module of the spacecraft. The fire was contained in the cockpit but unfortunately, carbon monoxide asphyxia (inhalation of smoke) killed the astronauts inside. The recovered bodies were found to have also suffered from third degree burns due to the intense heat. The fire has melted some portion of the astronauts’ space suits and hoses that connect to the life support.

A review board was immediately formed to determine the cause of the tragedy that claimed the lives of the three men. The source of the fire was never conclusively identified but there were theories as to the cause of the mishap. They attributed it to construction flaws and carelessly assembled command module. The exhaustive investigation of the fire and extensive redesigning of the command modules postponed any further manned launch. Scheduled manned flights were suspended by NASA officials for nearly a year.

Because of what happened, the command module underwent major redesigning. The scientists and engineers paid a lot of attention to the cabin atmosphere throughout the entire process of launching. Oxygen and nitrogen concentrations were carefully adjusted in the cabin at varying internal pressures. Flammable materials were faced out and replaced with non-flammable counterparts, wires and plumbing pipes were coated with insulation, and more than a thousand wiring problems were corrected. To prevent the space suits from burning, nylon was replaced by a non-flammable, highly heat-resistant fabric made from woven fiberglass and coated with Teflon. This fabric was called Beta cloth.

The tragedy that was Apollo 1 pushed the great minds to take a closer inspection on all the things that went wrong and used that opportunity to think of better solutions. The changes in the design were successful and in spite of the suspended take offs, the Apollo space program resumed to launching spacecrafts with a higher success rate.

Apollo 1 Accident

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The Apollo 2 rocket (S-IVB tank and instrument unit included) launched into a 188-kilometer circular orbit. The instrument unit was responsible for controlling the rocket during launching in the absence of the command service module. The flight led the scientists to conclude that the S-IVB can restart and the liquid hydrogen behaved as the engineers predicted it would. During its entire duration of orbiting, scientists observed the condition of the tank under extreme pressures. They found out that it has the ability to withstand so much stress and even surpassed its structural capacity. They were able to measure the amount of stress the tank was able to handle before it finally broke into pieces in space. Some of its fragments found their way back into the earth’s atmosphere and supposedly hit a German fishing vessel.

Even though the rocket did not last long, its goals were achieved and its mission was deemed a success. Scientists got their answers as to how the fuel in the tank behaved and because of this vital information they were able to anticipate its storage, handling, etc. Douglas Aircraft Company, the manufacturer of the S-IVB, made slight modifications to the tank and three months after Apollo 2 orbited the earth, declared that the new S-IVB tank was ready and fully operational to finally take man to the moon.

Apollo Mission Orbiter – Remake

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The command and service module in Apollo 3 was a model that can basically contain astronauts. Since the rocket was unmanned, crew necessities were not incorporated yet in the design. This was the first space flight with guidance and navigation system as well as a fuel cell electrical system.

In order for the rocket to go higher, engineers designed it to have four stage burns. The energy expelled in burning and disintegrating a single stage from the rocket can send it miles higher depending on its relative distance from the center of the earth. The farther the rocket, the weaker the gravitational pull of the earth has on it and the farther a stage burn can push the rocket away. To make sure that there will be four stage burns happening, the engineers programmed the command and service module of the rocket to do just that.

During the first stage burning for Apollo 3, it sent the rocket 56 kilometers from the launch pad. After the second stage burning, it reached 216 kilometers into the sky. The third and fourth burns lasted for only three seconds each, testing the capability of the rocket’s engine to quickly restart.

After the very short sub-orbit, the rocket reentered the earth’s atmosphere. It accelerated to as high as 8,900 meters per second upon reentry. When it reached 122 kilometers from the ground, it started to dip to 7.25 kilometers in altitude before the parachutes deployed. What remained of the rocket after the four stage burns is its capsule which landed 370 kilometers from the anticipated target site. The capsule of the space mission Apollo 3 is currently on display in a public museum in Alameda, California.

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Apollo 4 was the largest vehicle in the space program to successfully fly. It was also the first spacecraft to reenter the earth’s atmosphere at a speed close to the lunar return speed. To hasten the process of testing the components of the spacecraft, it was decided that on this mission, all components shall be tested in one go. This cuts the time, cost, and effort for individual testing but that meant that everything has to work properly or else tracing the flaws in a failed mission will be close to impossible. Fortunately, every component worked out fine. The command and service module used for this mission was the older design meant for systems testing rather than the newer version which had docking mechanisms for lunar landing. But since it was unmanned and was not intended to land on the moon yet, the CSM used was good enough for the engineers.

Upon the launching of Apollo 4 from the Kennedy Space Center, the amount of noise and energy from the engines of the rocket was immense that ceiling tiles of the buildings more than four miles away from the launching pad fell off. For this reason, NASA came up with a sound suppression system that pumps tons of water onto the flame trench under the launch pad. The spacecraft reached the height of 18,000 kilometers into space and followed an elliptical orbit. On its entry back into the atmosphere, another stage was burned to send it at 40,000 kilometers per hour, simulating a lunar return speed.

The success of the Apollo 4 space flight gave the engineers and scientists more hope that a future spacecraft will soon land the first man on the moon by the end of the decade. Its command module is currently on display at NASA in St. Louis, Mississippi.

Apollo 4 Stage

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The Apollo 5 space flight executed the first ever “fire in the hole” to simulate an aborted landing on the lunar surface. This means that the rocket should be able to fire its ascent stage with the descent stage still fastened to it. This maneuver eliminated the need for a complete touchdown on the moon before being able to lift back up again. This is a very important ability for the spacecraft to perform especially when emergency rises and a lunar landing should be called off.

Apollo 5 experienced a long delay in its flight. One of the major reasons was the holdup on the Lunar Module. There was basically just a shortage of expertise and experience in building a spacecraft that can supposedly to land on the moon. Another reason was the problem in fabricating the custom-built parts as per the specifications in the design. Engines were malfunctioning and on top of that, there were complications in the ascent engine’s welding and construction. During testing, the module’s window shattered due to a pressurized cabin. The failure of the windows brought awareness to the design team and replaced the old acrylic glass material with solid aluminum plates.

After eight months behind flight schedule, Apollo 5 finally took off on January of 1968. It had a successful take off, orbited once and after the lunar module separated, it orbited twice. The descent engine was then fired after-wards and was quickly aborted by its programmed command module. It proceeded to the planned “fire in the hole” test and successfully, the ascent engine burned. After four more orbits, the remaining two stages were abandoned and the mission was over. Both the ascent and descent stages landed into the Pacific and decayed.

Apollo 5 Launch Prep

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The primary objective of this space mission was to qualify the vessel’s design for a manned flight. The second objective was to test the command module re-entry system under extreme conditions replicating a worst case lunar return. Unfortunately, the second objective was not attained because of jet engine failures.

Right from the start, Apollo 6 experienced a lot of problems. Two minutes after lift off, it experienced extreme oscillations for half a minute. But George Mueller of NASA explained that these oscillations were just a normal characteristic for rocket engines that undergo combustion, causing fluctuations in the thrust and in turn create oscillations. Aside from those suspicious oscillations, cameras recorded several pieces of the rocket starting to fall off a little after two minutes into the flight. Problems started to rise in the engines. There was a problem with the second stage and then Engine 2 shut down. Not long after, Engine 3 shut down as well. It was a disaster for the major engines but the command module onboard was able to compensate the damage and was able to burn the rest of the stages successfully.

Due to the malfunctions that happened in Apollo 6 mission, spacecraft modifications were made. Helium gas from the pneumatic control system was redirected to the fuel lines, feed lines, and oxidizer pumps. By filling these cavities, pressure oscillations were dampened and calmed at best. The problem with the adapter was due to its honeycomb arrangement. The trapped air and water expanded as the rocket accelerated through the atmosphere causing the adapter surface to fall off. As a solution, small holes were drilled to allow the expansion of material.

Cameras filmed this feat at high speed creating a slow motion 15 times than the normal speed in order to capture the extremely fast sequence of events. Camera capsules were able to record the lift off and the separation of the first stage. They reached 200,000 feet in altitude and parachuted down to the ocean. On the day that Apollo 6 was launched, Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot and killed in Tennessee causing the media to flock over. For this reason, there was little press coverage on this space mission.

Classic TV – Apollo 6 Launch

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The mission’s objective was to test the redesigned Apollo command and service module. The crew was tasked to check the life support, propulsion, and control systems of the new and improved module. Everything went well from take off until the return of the astronauts. Apollo 7 was a great success and an ego booster to NASA as it raised their confidence to finally and successfully land man on the moon.

The spacecraft’s engines did not malfunction. All the technical operations went smoothly and did not have any problems. The service propulsion system, the system involving the stage burns to send the rocket to greater heights and reach the moon’s orbit, did not fail either. In fact, it made eight perfect firings during the flight. The cabin in this vessel was large. However, the eleven-day mission period caused some discomfort on the astronauts. Tension built between them and with the command center as well.

The crew experienced motion sickness and was very unhappy of their food. Worst of all, Commander Schirra became very irritable and unreasonable supposedly due to his severe head cold. This attitude affected the rest of the members of the crew. The misconduct tarnished their reputation and as a result, they were no longer allowed to take on future missions in space. Apart from this flaw, all the rest of the space mission turned out well and the objectives were achieved.

Three months after it was launched into space, Apollo 7’s command module was displayed on a NASA float in the inauguration parade for U.S. President Richard Nixon on January 1969. The command module and Schirra’s space suit were since then loaned to several museums in the United States and to the National Museum of Science and Technology in Ontario, Canada. The lease is renewable every after two years. Currently, the command module is on display at Frontiers of Flight Museum in Dallas, Texas.

Apollo 7 Launch – October 11, 1968

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Its mission was to conduct the first ever lunar travel about the moon’s orbit. It was a tall order and it meant that certain adjustments and training should be done for the spacecraft’s extraordinary flight. Because of the delay in the fabrication of a new lunar module, the command and service module was incorporated instead into Apollo 8 but at that time it was programmed to go all the way to the moon, even possibly entering its orbit. Back then, they feared that the Soviets had come up with a way to circumnavigate the moon and probably even land on it first. For this reason, Apollo 8’s flight was scheduled early without even waiting for the lunar model to be installed. Indeed, the mission truly sped up the possibility of lunar landing before the decade ended.

The severe oscillations that caused the downfall of Apollo 6 were taken into consideration for this mission. Helium gas was directed towards the feed lines and other cavities to dampen the vibrations and absorb the shocks. The other failure in Apollo 6 was the shutting down of two (out of the five) rocket engines. The malfunction was traced to leaking hydrogen fuel line which ruptured upon contact with vacuum. As a solution, the design of igniter lines and fuel conduits were modified to prevent their exposure to vacuum from happening again.

It took three days for the crew to travel to the moon. They orbited ten times in the span of 20 hours during Christmas Eve. When the spacecraft came out from behind the moon on its fourth pass, the crew witnessed earthrise for the first time in human history. It had perhaps the highest media coverage compared to its preceding Apollo missions. The crew landed back on earthy safely on December 27 of that year and became Time Magazine’s Men of the Year for 1968.

Apollo 8 – Launch & Orbit

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Space mission Apollo 9 was the first assembled Apollo spacecraft whose complete design included the lunar module. The lunar module, which was originally part of the design for Apollo 8, had problems during its fabrication that it caused a great delay for that mission. Since the Americans cannot wait any longer, they pushed through Apollo 8 without the lunar module. And so it came to pass the Apollo 9 was the first space mission to incorporate and test the improved lunar module five months after Apollo 8’s launching.

This space mission left a great mark in space exploration history as it paved the way to history’s first crew transfer in space. This milestone feat proved that spacecraft designs of the Apollo were perfectly cut out to execute docking and transfer in space. Because of the blue wrapping that the spacecraft was covered in at Kennedy Space Center, the crew named Apollo 9’s command and service module as “Gumdrop” and its lunar module as “Spider”.

Apollo 9 was famous for the first ever spacewalk in human history. Schweickart wore the new and improved suit designed with individual life support. He then proceeded to performing the spacewalk. Scott, the pilot for the command and service module, was inside filming his fellow crew member Schweickart. It was through this spacewalk that the astronauts in Apollo 9 demonstrated the possibility of safely crossing from the LM towards the CSM and vice versa. It was an incredible act that can be carried out during emergencies Schweickart’s demonstration, however, was cut short when he began feeling sick. It was after all the first time that a spacesuit was tested outside the confines of the spacecraft. After ten days in space, the mission ended and the crew traveled back to earth. The flight had almost a perfect success rate accomplishing ninety percent of its goals.

Apollo 9 – 40th Anniversary

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