The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has released more than 9,000 photos of the astronauts and spacecrafts of the Apollo program. Sputnik has chosen 18 photos to depict what many people worldwide call one of the greatest achievements of the mankind in the 20 century.
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© Flickr / NASA
The Apollo program, also known as Project Apollo is the only space program in the history of the mankind that resulted in a successful landing of a man on the Moon.
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© Flickr / NASA
The Apollo program was conducted from 1961 to 1975. The aim of the program as the national goal of former US President John F. Kennedy was formulated as “landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.”
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© Flickr / NASA
Apollo 1 was the first planned manned mission within the program. The launch was scheduled for February 21, 1967. However, it never occurred as a cabin fire during launch rehearsal test claimed the lives of all three crew members.
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© Flickr / NASA
The goal was achieved on the Apollo 11 mission on July 20, 1969, when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed the Lunar Module and walked on the Moon’s surface.
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© Flickr / NASA
Besides the first landing made by Armstrong and Aldrin, there were five more Apollo missions that also resulted in successful landing of men on the lunar surface.
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© Flickr / NASA
Apollo 12 mission was launched four months after Apollo 11 from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida.
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© Flickr / NASA
Crew members, Charles Conrad and Alan Bean took the first color television camera to the Moon’s surface. However, the camera was destroyed, after Charles Conrad pointed it at the Sun.
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© Flickr / NASA
The next Apollo 13 mission was launched on April 11, 1970. The lunar landing was aborted because of an oxygen tank explosion that caused shortage of potable water, loss of cabin heat and power. However, the team returned safely to Earth.
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© Flickr / NASA
The Apollo 14 mission was conducted from January 31, 1971 to February 9, 1971. It was the last mission of the “H” type that stipulated precision landing on the lunar surface and up to a two-day stay on the Moon.
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© Flickr / NASA
The crew took several hundred seeds on the mission, many of which were germinated and called Moon trees.
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© Flickr / NASA
Apollo 15 mission, which at first should have been the “H mission,” became the first mission under the term “J mission.”
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© Flickr / NASA
The “J mission” stipulated longer three-day stays aimed at greater focus on science and was the first to use the Lunar Roving Vehicle.
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© Flickr / NASA
The vehicle let the crew travel father from the Lunar Module. The mission crew managed to examine the Moon’s surface with use of a panoramic camera, a gamma-ray spectrometer, a laser altimeter, etc.
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© Flickr / NASA
Apollo 16 became the first mission to land in the Moon’s highlands. The crew members John Young and Charles Duke spent 71 hours within three days of the mission on the Moon’s surface.
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© Flickr / NASA
Apollo 17, the final mission within the program, was launched on December 7, 1972 and it was the first night launch.
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© Flickr / NASA
The Apollo 17 mission broke several records set by the previous launches, comprising the longest time in lunar orbit, the longest manned lunar landing flight, the largest lunar sample return, etc.
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© Flickr / NASA
The Apollo 17 mission is the last time human ever travelled beyond low Earth orbit and landed on the lunar surface.
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© Flickr / NASA
The Apollo program gave life to the Moon landing conspiracy theories claiming that no man ever landed on the lunar surface and all the photos and experiments were staged by NASA.
