US LUNAR PROGRAM
The history of our N1-L3 lunar program must be compared with the American Saturn-Apollo program. Subsequently, the American program began to be called, like the lunar ship, simply "Apollo". Comparison of the technology and organization of work on the lunar programs in the USA and the USSR makes it possible to pay tribute to the efforts of the two great powers in the implementation of one of the greatest engineering projects of the 20th century.
So, briefly, what happened in the USA.
In the period 1957 - 1959, the Army Ballistic Projectile Agency (ABMA) was engaged in the creation of long-range ballistic missiles. The agency included the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, which was a center for practical rocket development. One of the leaders of the Arsenal was Wernher von Braun, who united a team of German specialists who were taken to the USA from Germany in 1945. In 1945, 127 German prisoners of war from Peenemünde began working in Huntsville under the direction of von Braun. In 1955, having received American citizenship, 765 German specialists were already working in the United States. Most of them were invited to work in the US from West Germany voluntarily on a contract basis.
The first Soviet satellites shocked the US and made the Americans ask themselves if they really are the leaders in the development of Mankind. Soviet satellites indirectly contributed to strengthening the prestige of German specialists in America. Von Braun convinced the American military leadership that the only way to surpass the level of the Soviet Union was to develop significantly more powerful launch vehicles than the one that launched the first Soviet satellites and the first lunar satellites.
Back in December 1957, AVMA proposed a heavy rocket project, the first stage of which used a combination of engines with a total thrust near the Earth of 680 tf (I remind you that the R-7 had a combination of five engines with a thrust of 400 tf).
In August 1958, inspired by the resounding success of our third satellite, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DOA) agreed to fund the development of the Saturn heavy launch vehicle project. Subsequently, the name "Saturn" with various numerical and alphabetic indices was assigned to carriers of various power and configuration. All of them were built according to a common program with a single ultimate goal - the creation of a heavy launch vehicle, leapfrogging ahead of the achievements of the Soviet Union.
Rocketdyne received an order to develop the N-1 (H-1) engine for a heavy rocket in September 1958, when the American lagging behind became apparent. To speed up the work, it was decided to make a relatively simple engine, achieving, above all, high reliability, and not record specific performance. The N-1 engine was created in record time. On October 27, 1961, the first launch of the Saturn-1 rocket took place with a bunch of eight N-1 engines with a thrust of 85 tf each.
The initial proposals for the creation of heavy rockets in the United States found support by no means for the implementation of a peaceful lunar program.
General Power, commander of US strategic aviation, in 1958, supporting appropriations for space programs, said: “Whoever first establishes his place in outer space will be its master. And we just can't afford to lose the competition for space dominance."
Other military leaders of the United States spoke out quite frankly, declaring that whoever owns space will own the Earth. Despite President Eisenhower's apparent reluctance to sustain the hysterical hype over the "Russian threat" from space, there was growing public demand for action to overtake the USSR. Congressmen and senators demanded decisive action, trying to prove that the United States was in danger of complete annihilation by the USSR.
Under these conditions, one should be surprised at the firmness of Eisenhower, who insisted on the formulation that outer space should under no circumstances be used for military purposes.
On July 29, 1958, President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Policy Act, authored by Senator L. Johnson. The Decree determined the main programs and structure of space research management. The resolution was called the "National Act on Aeronautics and Space Exploration." A professional military man, General Eisenhower clearly defined the civilian focus of work in space. The "act" said that space research should be developed "in the name of peace for the benefit of all mankind." Subsequently, these words were engraved on a metal plate that the crew of Apollo 11 left on the moon.
The main event was the transformation of the National Aviation Advisory Committee (NACA) into the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). This allowed the US government to create a new powerful state organization in a short time. Subsequent events also showed that the appointment of Wernher von Braun as director of the Huntsville Design and Test Facility and the responsibility for the development of heavy launch vehicles was crucial to the success of the lunar program.
In November 1959, the American administration transferred the Redstone Arsenal to NASA. It is being transformed into the Space Flight Center. J. Marshall. Wernher von Braun is appointed technical director of the center. For von Braun personally, this was an event of great significance. He, who had stained himself in the eyes of the American democratic society by belonging to the National Socialist Party of Hitler, was given high confidence. Finally, he got the opportunity to realize the dream of interplanetary human flight, discussed back in Peenemünde! Just for talking about interplanetary flights, distracting from work on the V-2, in 1942 Wernher von Braun and Helmut Gröttrup were briefly arrested by the Gestapo.
The continuing successes of the Soviet cosmonautics did not give the Americans a respite for a calm organizational restructuring, a gradual staffing. Research organizations from NACA, the army and navy were hastily transferred to NASA. As of December 1962, the number of this state organization was 25,667 people, of which 9,240 people were certified scientists and engineers.
Five research centers transferred from the military department, five flight test centers, a jet propulsion laboratory, large test complexes and specialized production, as well as several new centers, were directly subordinated to NASA.
In Houston, Texas, a state center for the development of manned spacecraft with a crew was being created. Here was the main headquarters for the development and launch of the Gemini and future Apollos.
NASA was led by a group of three people appointed by the President of the United States. These three served, in our view, the roles of the general designer and general director of the entire NASA. Before NASA, the US administration was given the task of achieving superiority over the USSR in all the most important areas of space use in the coming years. Organizations united in NASA received the right to attract other government organizations, universities and private industrial corporations.
President Roosevelt during the war created a powerful state organization for the development of atomic weapons. This experience was now used by the young President Kennedy, who in every possible way strengthened NASA and controlled its work in order to fulfill the national task of overtaking the USSR at all costs.
American politicians and historians have made no secret of the fact that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration was created in response to the challenge posed by Soviet satellites. Unfortunately, neither we, the Soviet rocket scientists, nor the top political leadership of the Soviet Union appreciated the decisive importance of the organizational measures carried out in those years by the American administration.
The main task for the entire cooperation, united by NASA, was the implementation of a nationwide program to land an expedition to the moon until the end of the sixties. The cost of solving this problem already in the first years of activity accounted for three-quarters of the entire NASA budget.
On May 25, 1961, President Kennedy, in a message to Congress and all the American people, said: “Now is the time to take a big step, the time for a greater new America, the time for American science to take the lead in cosmic advances that may hold the key to our future on Earth... I believe that this nation will commit itself to achieving the great goal of landing a man on the moon and safely returning him to Earth as early as this decade.”
Soon Keldysh came to Korolev at OKB-1 to discuss our adequate program. He said that Khrushchev had asked him how serious President Kennedy's claim to landing a man on the moon was.
I answered Nikita Sergeevich, - said Keldysh, - that the task is technically feasible, but it will require very large funds. They must be sought through other programs. Nikita Sergeevich was clearly concerned and said that we would return to this issue in the near future.
At that time, we were the undisputed leaders in the world astronautics. However, in the lunar program, the United States was ahead of us already by the fact that they immediately declared it a national one: "Every American should contribute to the successful implementation of this flight." "Space dollars" began to penetrate almost every area of the American economy. Thus, the preparation of landing on the moon was under the control of the entire American society.
In 1941, Hitler gave von Braun the top secret national task of building the V-2 ballistic missile, a secret "weapon of retaliation" for the mass destruction of the British.
In 1961 President Kennedy publicly entrusted the same von Braun to the world with the nationwide task of building the world's most powerful manned lunar launch vehicle.
Von Braun proposed for a new multi-stage rocket at the first stage to use already well-developed components - oxygen and kerosene - for the rocket engine, and at the second and third stages - a new pair - oxygen and hydrogen. Two factors are noteworthy: firstly, the absence of proposals for the use of high-boiling components (such as nitrogen tetroxide and dimethylhydrazine) for a new heavy rocket, despite the fact that at that time the heavy intercontinental rocket Titan-2 was being created on such high-boiling components; and, secondly, the use of hydrogen is proposed for the next steps immediately, and not in the future. Von Braun, proposing the use of hydrogen as a fuel, appreciated the prophetic ideas of Tsiolkovsky and Oberth. In addition, for one of the variants of the Atlas rocket, the second stage of the Centaur was already being developed with a rocket engine running on oxygen and hydrogen. The Centaur was subsequently successfully used by the Americans as the third stage of the Titan-3 rocket.
The RL-10 hydrogen engine for the Centaur, developed by Pratt and Whitney, had a thrust of only 6.8 tf. But it was the first rocket engine in the world with a record-breaking specific thrust of 420 units at that time. In 1985, the encyclopedia "Cosmonautics" was published, the editor-in-chief of which was Academician Glushko. In this edition, Glushko pays tribute to the hydrogen rocket engines and the work of the Americans.
In the article “Liquid-propellant rocket engine” it is written: “With an equal launch mass of the launch vehicle, they (oxygen-hydrogen LREs) are capable of delivering three times more payload into near-Earth orbit than oxygen-kerosene LREs.”
However, it is known that at the beginning of his work on the development of liquid-propellant rocket engines, Glushko had a negative attitude towards the idea of using liquid hydrogen as a fuel. In the book "Rockets, Their Design and Application" Glushko gives a comparative assessment of rocket fuels for the case of movement in outer space, using the Tsiolkovsky formula. In conclusion of calculations, the analysis of which is not part of my task, the 27-year-old engineer of the RNII wrote in 1935: “Thus, a rocket with hydrogen fuel will have a greater speed than a rocket of the same weight with gasoline, only if the weight fuel will exceed the rest of the rocket's weight by more than 430 times ... From here we see that the idea of using liquid hydrogen as a fuel should be discarded.
Glushko realized the mistake of his youth no later than 1958, judging by the fact that he endorsed the decree, which, among other measures, also provides for the development of a hydrogen-powered liquid-propellant rocket engine. Unfortunately, in the practical development of hydrogen rocket engines, the USSR lagged behind the United States at the very beginning of the lunar race. This time lag increased and eventually turned out to be one of the factors that determined the significant advantage of the American lunar program.
Glushko's negative attitude towards oxygen-hydrogen steam as a fuel for liquid-propellant rocket engines was one of the reasons for the sharp criticism from Korolev and especially Mishin. Among rocket fuels, oxygen-hydrogen pair is in second place in terms of efficiency after fluorine-hydrogen fuel. Particular indignation was caused by the message that Glushko was creating a special branch on the coast of the Gulf of Finland for testing fluorine engines. “He can poison Leningrad with his fluorine,” Mishin raged.
In fairness, it must be said that, having become the general designer of NPO Energia, when developing the Energia - Buran rocket and space complex, Glushko came to the decision to create a second stage on an oxygen-hydrogen engine.
The use of hydrogen for heavy launch vehicles can be used as an example to show that neither the US nor the USSR governments have defined such issues. This was entirely the responsibility of development managers.
In 1960, NASA leadership approved three forced phases of the Saturn program:
"Saturn S-1" - two-stage rocket with the first launch in 1961, the second stage on hydrogen;
"Saturn S-2" - a three-stage rocket launched in 1963;
"Saturn S-3" - a five-stage promising rocket.
For all three options, a single first stage was designed with an LRE on oxygen-kerosene fuel. For the second and third stages, Rocketdyne ordered J-2 oxygen-hydrogen engines with a thrust of 90.7 tf. For the fourth and fifth stages, Pratt & Whitney ordered LR-115 engines with a thrust of 9 tf or the already mentioned Centaur with a thrust of up to 7 tf.
After discussions and experiments, three types of Saturn-type launch vehicles finally went into development, production and flight tests:
"Saturn-1", intended for experimental flights with the aim of testing the prototypes of the Apollo spacecraft in orbit. This two-stage rocket with a launch weight of 500 tons carried a payload of up to 10.2 tons into the satellite orbit;
"Saturn-1B", developed as a modification of the "Saturn-1". It was intended for manned orbital flights with the aim of testing the modules of the Apollo spacecraft and rendezvous and docking operations. The launch weight of the Saturn-1B was 600 tons, and the payload weight was 18 tons. The second stage of the "Saturn-1B" on oxygen and hydrogen was worked out in order to use its analogue as the third stage of the next final modification of the "Saturns";
"Saturn-5" - the final version of the three-stage launch vehicle for the lunar expedition, replacing the five-stage "Saturn S-3".
Returning once again to the problem of hydrogen engines, I want to draw attention to the fact that the J-2 rocket engine began to be developed by Rocketdine under a contract with NASA in September 1960. At the end of 1962, this powerful high-altitude hydrogen engine was already undergoing fire bench tests, developing a thrust corresponding to 90 ton-force in a vacuum.
The company founded in Voronezh by Kosberg managed to surpass these achievements of the Rocketdyne company in terms of the parameters of the oxygen-hydrogen rocket engine. The chief designer Alexander Konopatov created in 1980 for the second stage of the Energia rocket the RD-0120 liquid-propellant rocket engine with a thrust in the void of 200 tf and a specific impulse of 440 units. But this happened after 25 years!
The Americans also envisaged the prospects of using instead of a rocket engine in the second or third stage of a nuclear engine. The work on this engine in the program under the code "Rover", in contrast to the work on the rocket engine, was strictly classified even for the employees of the Center. J. Marshall.
According to NASA's plans, it was proposed to carry out Saturn launches, gradually complicating the program in such a way that in 1963-1964 they would have a fully developed heavy carrier.
In July 1961, a special committee on launch vehicles was created in the United States. The committee included the heads of NASA, the Department of Defense, the Air Force and some corporations. The committee proposed to develop the Saturn S-3 launch vehicle in a three-stage version. Significantly new was the committee's decision to develop the F-1 LRE by Rocketdyne with a thrust of 680 tf for the first stage.
"Saturn S-3" according to calculations was able to take 45-50 tons into the orbit of the satellite and only 13.5 tons to the Moon. This was not enough, and NASA, encouraged by the position of the president, is boldly expanding the scope of work on the lunar program.
NASA's two powerful scientific teams are the Houston Manned Spacecraft Center (later the Johnson Space Center) and the NASA Center. J. Marshall, who developed the carriers, offered different options for the expedition.
The Houston engineers proposed the simplest direct flight option: three astronauts in a spaceship launch to the moon with a very powerful rocket and fly the shortest route. According to this scheme, the spacecraft must have enough fuel to make a direct landing, then take off and return to Earth without any intermediate docking.
According to calculations, the "direct" version required 23 tons of launch mass on the surface of the Moon to return to Earth. To obtain such a launch mass on the Moon, it was required to put 180 tons into the satellite orbit, and 68 tons onto the trajectory to the Moon. Such a mass in one launch could be launched by the Nova launch vehicle, the project of which was considered at the Center. J. Marshall. This monster, according to preliminary calculations, had a starting mass of over 6000 tons. The creation of such a rocket, according to optimists, went far beyond 1970 and was rejected by the committee.
Center them. J. Marshall, in which German specialists worked, initially proposed a two-launch near-Earth orbital version. An unmanned booster rocket stage is launched into the Earth's orbit. In the Earth's orbit, it was supposed to dock with the third manned stage, which had the supply of hydrogen necessary for acceleration to the Moon. In Earth orbit, the booster rocket's oxygen is pumped into the empty third-stage oxidizer tank, and such an oxygen-hydrogen rocket accelerates the spacecraft to the Moon. Further, there may be two options: a direct landing on the moon or a preliminary entry into orbit of an artificial satellite of the moon (ASL). The second option was proposed by Yuri Kondratyuk and independently by Hermann Oberth in the twenties.
Engineers at the Houston center proposed a natural development of the rocket pioneers' idea, which consisted in the fact that the spacecraft was proposed from two modules: a command module and a lunar cabin - a "lunar taxi".
The spacecraft, consisting of two modules, was named "Apollo". With the help of the engines of the third stage of the launch vehicle and the command module, it was launched into the orbit of an artificial moon satellite. Two astronauts must move from the command module to the lunar cabin, which then separates from the command module and lands on the moon. The third astronaut remains in the command module in ISL orbit. After completing the mission on the Moon, the lunar cabin with the astronauts takes off, docks with the vehicle waiting in orbit, the "lunar taxi" separates and falls to the Moon, and the orbital module with three astronauts returns to Earth.
This lunar-orbital version was more carefully developed and supported by the third NASA scientific center, which had not previously participated in disputes - them. Langley.
Each of the options proposed the use of at least two carriers of the three-stage Saturn-5C type with a launch weight of 2500 tons for each lunar expedition.
Each Saturn 5C was valued at $120 million. This seemed expensive, and two-launch options were not supported. The most realistic was a single-launch lunar-orbital version proposed by Jack S. Howbolt, an engineer at the Center. Langley. The most tempting in this variant was the use of only one carrier of the Saturn-5C type (later simply Saturn-5), while increasing the launch weight to 2900 tons. This option made it possible to increase the mass of the Apollo by 5 tons. The unrealistic Nova project was finally buried.
While there were disputes, research and calculations, the Center. J. Marshall began flight tests of Saturn-1 in October 1961.
A total of nine Saturn 1s have been launched since October 1961, most with real hydrogen second stages.
NASA, meanwhile, has set up another committee to study US needs for large space launch vehicles over the next decade.
This committee confirmed that the previously proposed direct variant using the Nova rocket was unrealistic and again recommended a two-launch terrestrial orbital variant with a direct landing on the Moon using the Saturn V. Violent debate over alternatives continued despite the committee's decision.
Only on July 5, 1962, NASA makes an official decision: the lunar-orbital single-launch option is declared the only safe and economical way to reach the Moon before 1970. Preliminary calculations showed that Saturn-5 could put 120 tons into Earth orbit and deliver 45 tons into the Moon's orbit. Howbolt's group was jubilant - their ideas were taking over the minds of NASA officials. Joint work of the centers began to connect the Saturn-1 projects with proposals for Saturn-5 and the lunar orbital version. The second, hydrogen, stage of Saturn-1 was made the third stage of Saturn-5.
However, even scientific consultants close to Kennedy were not yet sure of the optimality of the proposed scheme.
On September 11, 1962, a month before the Cuban Missile Crisis, President Kennedy visited the J. Marshall. He was accompanied by Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, Secretary of Defense McNamara, the British Secretary of Defense, leading scientists, scientific advisers and NASA leaders. At the gathering of a large number of officials and journalists, Kennedy listened to von Braun's explanations about the new large liquid rocket "Saturn-5" and the scheme of flight to the Moon. Von Braun supported the single-launch option proposed by the Center. Langley.
However, the final decision on the single-launch version was made only in 1963, when fire tests of the engines and Saturn-1 launches gave confidence in a sufficient margin of energy reliability and encouraging data were obtained on the mass characteristics of the Apollo spacecraft. By this time, a large backlog of experimental work, calculations when choosing various flight patterns, in the end, led three centers - them. Langley, im. J. Marshall in Huntsville and Houston - to a single concept.
For a manned flight to the Moon, the three-stage Saturn-5 launch vehicle was finally chosen.
The launch mass of the entire system - the rocket together with the Apollo spacecraft - reached 2900 tons. On the first stage of the Saturn-5 rocket, five F-1 engines were installed, each with a thrust of 695 tf, running on liquid oxygen and kerosene. Thus, the total thrust at the Earth was almost 3500 tf. Five J-2 engines were installed in the second stage, each of which developed 102-104 tf thrust in vacuum - a total thrust of about 520 tf. These engines ran on liquid oxygen and hydrogen. The engine of the third stage J-2 - multiple launch, which worked, like the engine of the second stage, on hydrogen, developed a thrust of 92-104 tf. During the first launch, the third stage was intended to launch the Apollo into satellite orbit. The mass of the payload, launched into a circular orbit of a satellite with a height of 185 kilometers and an inclination of 28.5 degrees, was 139 tons. Then, during the second launch, the payload accelerated to the speed necessary for flying to the Moon along a given trajectory. The mass accelerated to the Moon reached 65 tons. Thus, the Saturn-5 accelerated to the Moon a payload of almost the same mass, which was previously supposed to be launched by the Nova rocket.
I run the risk of tiring readers with an abundance of numbers. But without attention to them, it will be difficult to imagine where exactly and why we lost to the Americans.
Reliability and safety were very strict requirements for all stages of the American lunar program. The principle of ensuring reliability through careful ground testing was adopted, so that only those tests could be carried out in flight that, with the current state of the art, could not be carried out on the ground.
High reliability was achieved thanks to the creation of a powerful experimental base for ground tests of each stage of the rocket and all modules of the lunar ship. During ground tests, measurements are greatly facilitated, their accuracy is increased, and there is the possibility of a thorough study after testing. The principle of maximum ground testing was also dictated by the very high cost of flight tests. The Americans set the task of minimizing developmental flight tests.
Our ground mining cost savings confirmed the old adage that the miser pays twice. The Americans did not skimp on ground mining and carried it out on an unprecedented scale before.
Numerous stands were created for fire testing not only single engines, but all full-size rocket stages. Each production engine routinely passed fire tests before flight at least three times: two times before delivery and the third - as part of the corresponding rocket stage.
Thus, the disposable engines according to the flight program were actually reusable. It must be borne in mind that in order to obtain reliability, both we and the Americans had two main categories of tests: those that are carried out on a single prototype of the product (or on a small number of samples) to demonstrate how reliably the design will perform its functions in all flight conditions, including determining the actual life of the product; and those tests that are carried out on each flight prototype to ensure that they are free from accidental manufacturing defects or errors in mass production technology. The first category of tests includes development tests at the design stage. These are the so-called design and development development (according to American terminology - qualification) tests carried out on test samples. Here, the Americans and I, testing single engines, acted more or less identically. In the second category, relating to acceptance testing of engines, rocket stages and a number of other products, we were able to catch up with the Americans in terms of methodology only 20 years later when creating the Energia rocket.
The sheer depth and breadth of the testing spectrum, which cannot be shortened by any deadline, was the main factor leading to the highest degree of reliability of the Saturn V rocket and the Apollo spacecraft.
Shortly after the assassination of President Kennedy, at one of our regular lunar schedule meetings, Korolev announced what he said our senior political leadership had. Allegedly, the new president, Lyndon Johnson, does not intend to support the lunar program at such a pace and on such a scale that NASA proposed. Johnson is inclined to spend more on combat intercontinental missiles and save on space.
Our hopes for the reduction of space programs did not come true. The new President of the United States, Lyndon Johnson, addressed a message to Congress, reporting on the work in the field of aviation and space, carried out in the United States in 1963. This message said: “1963 was the year of our further success in the exploration of outer space. It was also the year of a thorough review of our space program from the point of view of national security interests, as a result of which the course towards achieving and maintaining in the future our superiority in space exploration was widely approved ...
Achieving success in space exploration is very important for our nation if we want to maintain primacy in the development of technology and effectively contribute to strengthening peace throughout the world. However, to accomplish this task, significant material resources will be required.
Even Johnson admitted that the United States lagged behind the USSR "as a result of the relatively late start of work and the lack of enthusiasm for space exploration at first." He noted: “During this period, our main rival did not stand still and actually continued to lead in some areas ... However, our remarkable success in the development of large rockets and complex spacecraft is convincing evidence that the United States is on the way to new successes in the development of space and eliminate any lag in this area ... If we have set ourselves the goal of achieving and maintaining superiority, then we cannot weaken our efforts, reduce our enthusiasm.”
In listing the achievements of 1963, Johnson felt it necessary to mention: “... the successful launch of the Centaur rocket, the first rocket with high-energy fuel, was successfully carried out, one of a series of tests of the first stage of the Saturn rocket with a thrust of 680,000 kg - the largest of the first tested so far launch vehicle stages. At the end of 1963, the United States developed more powerful missiles than currently available in the USSR.
Turning directly to the lunar program, Johnson noted that in 1963 nine models of the Apollo spacecraft had already been made, the propulsion systems of the spacecraft were being developed, numerous test benches were being developed, and a rescue system in case of an explosion at the start was being tested.
A detailed report on the work on the Saturn rockets confirmed the fragmentary information we had about the successful implementation of this program. In particular, it was said that the J-2 hydrogen engine, designed for the second stage of the Saturn-5 launch vehicle, had successfully passed factory tests, and the first deliveries of these engines began. All doubts about the choice of the type of rocket for the lunar expedition were finally removed: “Currently, the most powerful Saturn-5 launch vehicle is under development, designed to deliver two people to the surface of the Moon.”
Further, the members of Congress were told in detail about the design and parameters of Saturn-5, the flight scheme to the Moon, the progress in the production of test stands, launch facilities and the development of means of transporting the giant rocket.
A comparison of the state of work on the lunar program "with us and with them" by the beginning of 1964 shows that we are at least two years behind on the project as a whole. As for engines, oxygen-kerosene engines with a thrust of about 600 tf and powerful oxygen-hydrogen rocket engines were not developed at all at that time.
The information that came to us through open channels during 1964 showed that work on the lunar program did not prevent the Americans from developing combat missiles. More detailed information was delivered by our foreign intelligence. The scope of the work on the construction of new assembly shops for Saturn V and Apollo, test beds, launch facilities at Cape Canaveral (later the J. Kennedy Center), launch and flight control centers made a strong impression on us.
The most pessimistic thoughts about this information were frankly expressed to me by Voskresensky after several difficult conversations with Korolev, and then with Tyulin and Keldysh. He sought to convince them to more forcefully demand an increase in funds, primarily for the creation of a stand for firing tests of the full-size first stage of the future rocket. He did not receive support from the Queen. Voskresensky told me: “If we ignore the American experience and continue to build a rocket in the hope that maybe it will fly not the first time, then the second time, then we all will have a pipe. We burned the R-7 at the booth in Zagorsk in full, and even then it flew only the fourth time. If Sergey continues such a game of chance, I will get out of it. ” Voskresensky's pessimism could also be explained by the sharp deterioration in his health. However, the intuition of the tester, inherent in him and more than once surprising his friends, turned out to be prophetic.
In 1965, the "Americans", as Korolev usually said, had already worked out reusable engines for all stages of the Saturn-5 and switched to their serial production. This was critical to the reliability of the launch vehicle.
The production of the Saturn-5 launch vehicle design alone proved beyond the power of even the most powerful US aviation corporations. Therefore, the design development and manufacture of the launch vehicle was distributed among the leading aviation corporations. The first stage was manufactured by Boeing, the second by North American Rockwell, the third by McDonnell-Douglas, the instrument compartment, together with its filling, by IBM, the world's largest electronic computer company. A gyro-stabilized three-stage platform was located in the instrument compartment, which served as the carrier of the coordinate system, which provided control of the spatial position of the rocket and (with the help of a digital computer) navigation measurements.
The launch complex was located at the Space Center at Cape Canaveral. An impressive building for assembling a rocket was built there. This structural steel-framed building, still in use today, is 160 meters high, 160 meters wide and 220 meters long. Near the assembly building, five kilometers from the launch site, there is a four-story launch control center, in which, in addition to all the necessary services, there is also a cafeteria, and even a gallery for visitors and guests of honor.
The launch was made from the launch pad. But this launch pad was not like ours. It housed the computers for testing, the computers for the refueling system, the air conditioning and ventilation system, and the water supply systems. In preparation for the launch, mobile service towers 114 meters high with two high-speed elevators were used.
The rocket was transported from the assembly building to the starting position in a vertical position by a caterpillar conveyor, which had its own diesel generator sets.
The launch control center had a control room that could accommodate more than 100 people behind electronic screens.
All subcontractors were subject to the most stringent requirements for reliability and safety, which covered all stages of the program from the design stage to the launch of the spacecraft on the flight path to the Moon.
The first developmental flights of the Apollo lunar spacecraft began in an unmanned version. On the carrier rockets "Saturn-1" and "Saturn-1B" experimental models of "Apollo" were tested in unmanned mode. For these purposes, in the period from May 1964 to January 1968, five Saturn-1 and three Saturn-1B launch vehicles were launched. Two uncrewed Apollo launches using Saturn V launch vehicles were made on November 9, 1967 and April 4, 1968. The first launch of the Saturn-5 launch vehicle with the Apollo 4 unmanned spacecraft was carried out on November 9, 1967, while the ship was accelerated to the Earth at a speed of more than 11 kilometers per second from a height of 18,317 kilometers! This completed the stage of unmanned testing of the launch vehicle and the ship,
Crewed ship launches began much later than originally planned. On January 27, 1967, during ground training, a fire broke out in the flight deck of the Apollo spacecraft. The tragedy of the situation was aggravated by the fact that neither the crew nor the ground personnel were able to quickly open the escape hatch. Three astronauts were burned alive or suffocated. The cause of the fire was an atmosphere of pure oxygen, which was used in the Apollo life system. In oxygen, as the fire department explained to us, everything burns, even metal. Therefore, a spark in electrical equipment was enough, which is harmless in a normal atmosphere. The fire-fighting refinement of Apollo required 20 months!
Starting with the Vostoks, our manned ships used filling that did not differ in composition from the usual atmosphere. Nevertheless, after what happened in America, we launched research in relation to the Soyuz and L3, which ended in the development of standards for materials and structures that ensure fire safety.
The first manned flight was carried out by the crew in the Apollo 7 command and service module, launched into orbit by the Saturn 5 satellite in October 1968. The spacecraft, without a lunar cockpit, was carefully tested on an eleven-day flight.
In December 1968, Saturn 5 put Apollo 8 on a flight path to the Moon. It was the world's first manned spacecraft mission to the Moon. The navigation and control system on the Earth-Moon track, orbit around the Moon, Moon-Earth track, the entry of the command module with the crew into the Earth's atmosphere with the second space velocity and the accuracy of splashdown in the ocean were tested.
In March 1969, on Apollo 9, the lunar cabin and the command and service module were tested together in orbit of a satellite. The methods of controlling the entire space lunar complex “assembly”, communication between ships and the Earth, rendezvous and docking were tested. The Americans made a very risky experiment. Two astronauts in the lunar cabin undocked from the service module, moved away from it, and then tested the rendezvous and docking systems. In case of failure in these systems, the two astronauts in the lunar cabin were doomed. But everything went well.
It seemed that now everything was ready for landing on the moon. But there were still untested lunar descent, takeoff, rendezvous navigation in orbit around the moon. The Americans use another complete Saturn complex - Apollo. On Apollo 10, in May 1969, a “dress rehearsal” was held, at which all stages and operations were tested, except for the landing on the lunar surface itself.
In a series of flights, step by step, the volume of procedures tested in real conditions, leading to the possibility of a reliable lunar landing, gradually increased. In seven months, with the help of the Saturn-5 carrier, four manned flights were made, which made it possible to check all the materiel, eliminate the detected shortcomings, train all ground personnel, and instill confidence in the crew, which was entrusted with the accomplishment of a great task.
By the summer of 1969, everything was checked in flight, with the exception of the actual landing and operations on the lunar surface. The Apollo 11 team focused their time and attention on these remaining tasks. On July 16, 1969, N. Armstrong, M. Collins and E. Aldrin will start on Apollo 11 to forever enter the history of astronautics. Armstrong and Aldrin spent 21 hours 36 minutes 21 seconds on the moon.
In July 1969, all of America was jubilant, just as the Soviet Union was in April 1961.
Following the first lunar expedition, America sent six more! Only one of the seven lunar expeditions was unsuccessful. The Apollo 13 expedition, due to an accident on the Earth-Moon route, was forced to abandon the landing on the Moon and return to Earth. This crash flight has inspired our engineering admiration more than the successful moon landings. Formally, it was a failure. But it demonstrated reliability and safety margins that our project did not have at that time.
Why? Let's go back to the Soviet Union to find an answer.
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the NASA manned space flight program adopted in 1961 to carry out the first manned landing on the Moon and completed in 1975. President John F. Kennedy formulated this problem in his speech on September 12, 1961, and it was solved on July 20, 1969 during the Apollo mission The 11th landing of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. Also, under the Apollo program, 5 more successful landings of astronauts on the moon were made, the last in 1972. These six flights under the Apollo program are currently the only ones in the history of mankind when people landed on another astronomical object. The Apollo program and the moon landings are often cited as some of the greatest achievements in human history.
The Apollo program was the third human spaceflight program adopted by NASA, the US space agency. This program used the Apollo spacecraft and the Saturn series of launch vehicles, which were later used for the Skylab program and participated in the Soviet-American Soyuz-Apollo program. These later programs are considered part of the full Apollo program.
During the program, there were two major accidents. The first is a fire during ground tests at the launch complex, which killed 3 astronauts V. Grissom, E. White and R. Chaffee. The second occurred during the flight of Apollo 13, as a result of the explosion of an oxygen tank and the failure of two of the three fuel cell batteries. The landing on the moon was thwarted, the astronauts managed to return to Earth at the risk of their lives.
The program has made a great contribution to the history of manned astronautics. It remains the only space program to have carried out manned flights beyond low Earth orbit. Apollo 8 was the first manned spacecraft to orbit another astronomical object, and Apollo 17 is the last manned moon landing to date.
background
The Apollo program was conceived in early 1960, under the Eisenhower administration, as a continuation of the American Mercury space program. The Mercury spacecraft could only carry one astronaut into low Earth orbit. The new Apollo spacecraft was designed to put three astronauts on a trajectory to the moon and possibly even land on it. The program was named after Apollo, the Greek god of light and archery, by NASA manager Avram Silverstein. Although funding was well below what was needed due to Eisenhower's negative attitude towards manned spaceflight, NASA continued to develop the program. In November 1960, John F. Kennedy was elected president after a campaign in which he promised the Americans to dominate the Soviet Union in space exploration and rocketry.
On April 12, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space, furthering American fears that the United States was technologically behind the Soviet Union.
Spaceship
The Apollo spacecraft consisted of two main parts - the command and service compartments, in which the crew spent most of the flight, and the lunar module, designed to land and take off from the moon for two astronauts.
Command and service compartments
Apollo command and service compartments in lunar orbit.
The command compartment was designed by North American Rockwell and has the shape of a cone with a spherical base, base diameter 3920 mm, cone height 3430 mm, apex angle 60°, nominal weight 5500 kg.
The command compartment is the mission control center. All crew members during the flight are in the command compartment, with the exception of the landing on the moon. The command compartment, in which the crew returns to Earth, is all that remains of the Saturn V-Apollo system after the flight to the Moon. The service compartment carries the main propulsion system and support systems for the Apollo spacecraft.
The command compartment has a pressurized cabin with a crew life support system, a control and navigation system, a radio communication system, an emergency rescue system and a heat shield.
Lunar module
The Apollo Lunar Module on the surface of the moon.
The Apollo lunar module was developed by Grumman and has two stages: landing and takeoff. The landing stage, equipped with an independent propulsion system and landing legs, is used to lower the lunar spacecraft from the Moon's orbit and soft landing on the lunar surface, and also serves as a launch pad for the takeoff stage. The takeoff stage, with a pressurized crew cabin and its own propulsion system, after completion of research, starts from the surface of the Moon and docks with the command compartment in orbit. The separation of steps is carried out using pyrotechnic devices.
Launch vehicles
When a team of engineers led by Wernher von Braun began to develop the Apollo program, it was not yet clear which flight scheme would be chosen, and, accordingly, the mass of the payload that the launch vehicle would have to put on a trajectory to the Moon is unknown. The flight to the Moon, in which one ship landed on the Moon, took off and returned to Earth, required a significantly greater carrying capacity from the launch vehicle than existing rockets were capable of launching into space. Initially, it was planned to create a Nova launch vehicle. But soon a solution was chosen, in which the main ship remains in lunar orbit, and only the lunar module, which is separated from the main ship, lands on the moon and takes off from the moon. To accomplish this task, the Saturn IB and Saturn V launch vehicles were created. Despite the fact that the Saturn V had significantly less power than the Nova.
Saturn V
Diagram of Saturn V
The Saturn V launch vehicle consisted of three stages. The first stage, S-IC, was powered by five F-1 oxygen-kerosene engines, with a total thrust of 33,400 kN. The first stage worked for 2.5 minutes and accelerated the spacecraft to a speed of 2.68? with. The second stage, the S-II, used five J-2 oxygen-hydrogen engines with a total thrust of 5115 kN. The second stage worked for approximately 6 minutes, accelerating the spacecraft to a speed of 6.84? s and bringing it to a height of 185 km. On the third stage, S-IVB, one J-2 engine with a thrust of 1000 kN was installed. The third stage was turned on twice, after the separation of the second stage, it worked for 2.5 minutes and put the spacecraft into Earth's orbit. After entering orbit, the third stage turned on again and in 6 minutes brought the ship to the flight path to the Moon. The third stage was brought to the trajectory of a collision with the Moon to study the geology of the Moon, when the stage collided with the Moon, due to the kinetic energy of its movement, an explosion occurred, the effect of which on the Moon was recorded by the equipment left by the previous crews.
The Saturn V launch vehicle was capable of delivering a total mass of about 145 tons to low Earth orbit, and about 65 tons to the trajectory to the Moon. A total of 13 rocket launches were made, 9 of them to the Moon.
Saturn IB
The Saturn IB is a two-stage booster, an upgraded version of the Saturn I booster. The first stage, SI-B, was powered by 8 H-1 oxygen-kerosene engines with a total thrust of 6,700 kN. The stage worked for 2.5 minutes and turned off at an altitude of 68 kilometers. The second stage of the Saturn IB, S-IVB, the third stage of the Saturn V, operated for about 7 minutes and put the payload into orbit.
Saturn IB put 15.3 tons into low earth orbit. It was used in test launches under the Apollo program and in the Skylab and Soyuz-Apollo programs.
Space flights under the Apollo program
Unmanned launches
Manned flights
The first photograph taken by Neil Armstrong after his walk on the lunar surface.
Apollo 7, launched on October 11, 1968, was the first manned spacecraft of the Apollo program. It was an eleven-day flight in Earth orbit, the purpose of which was complex testing of the command module and the command and measurement complex.
Initially, the next manned flight under the Apollo program was supposed to be the maximum possible simulation of the operating modes and conditions of flight to the Moon in Earth orbit, and the next launch was supposed to conduct similar tests in lunar orbit, making the first manned flight around the Moon. But at the same time, the USSR was testing the Zond, a two-seat manned spacecraft Soyuz 7K-L1, which was supposed to be used for a manned flight around the moon. The threat that the USSR would overtake the United States in a manned lunar flyby forced the project leaders to reshuffle the flights, despite the fact that the lunar module was not yet ready for testing.
On December 21, 1968, Apollo 8 was launched, and on December 24, it entered the orbit of the Moon, making the first manned flight around the Moon in the history of mankind.
On March 3, 1969, the launch of Apollo 9 took place, during this flight an imitation of a flight to the moon in earth orbit was made.
On May 18, 1969, Apollo 10 was sent into space, in this flight a “dress rehearsal” was held for landing on the moon. The ship's flight program provided for all the operations that were to be carried out during the landing, with the exception of the actual lunar landing, stay on the Moon and launch from the Moon. Some NASA experts, after the successful flights of Apollo 8 and Apollo 9, recommended using Apollo 10 for the first landing of people on the moon. NASA management deemed it necessary to preliminarily conduct another test flight.
A video camera mounted on Apollo 11 captured Neil Armstrong's first steps on the moon.
Pictured is Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin saluting the American flag. The illusion of wind is caused by a horizontal rod that is inserted to hold the flag's top edge in place.
On July 16, 1969, Apollo 11 launched. On July 20, at 20 hours 17 minutes 42 seconds GMT, the lunar module landed in the Sea of Tranquility. Neil Armstrong descended to the lunar surface on July 21, 1969 at 02:56:20 GMT, making the first lunar landing in human history. Stepping on the surface of the moon, he said:
On November 14, 1969, Apollo 12 was launched, and on November 19, the second landing on the moon took place. The lunar module landed about two hundred meters from the Surveyor-3 spacecraft, the astronauts photographed the landing site and dismantled some parts of the spacecraft, which were then brought to Earth. Collected 34.4 kg of lunar rocks. The astronauts returned to earth on November 24.
On April 11, 1970, Apollo 13 was launched. On April 14, at a distance of 330,000 kilometers from Earth, an oxygen cylinder exploded and two of the three fuel cell batteries that provided power to the command module crew compartment failed. As a result, the astronauts could not use the main engine and life support systems of the service module. Only the undamaged lunar module remained at the disposal of the astronauts. Using its engine, the trajectory was corrected so that after flying around the moon, the ship returned to Earth, thanks to which the astronauts managed to escape. The astronauts returned to earth on April 17.
On January 31, 1971, Apollo 14 launched. On February 5, 1971, the lunar module landed. The astronauts returned to Earth on February 9, 1971. During the flight, a much larger scientific program was carried out than in the Apollo 11 and Apollo 12 expeditions. Collected 42.9 kg of lunar rocks.
Apollo 15 Expedition. Lunar car.
On July 26, 1971, Apollo 15 took off. On July 30, the Lunar Module landed. During this expedition, the lunar vehicle was used for the first time, which was also used in the flights of Apollo 16 and Apollo 17. Collected 76.8 kg of lunar rocks. The astronauts returned to Earth on August 7, 1971.
On April 16, 1972, Apollo 16 was launched. On April 21, the lunar module landed. Collected 94.7 kg of lunar rocks. The astronauts returned to Earth on April 27, 1972.
December 7, 1972 - Launch of Apollo 17. On December 11, the lunar module landed. Collected 110.5 kg of lunar rocks. During this expedition, the last landing on the moon took place today. The astronauts returned to Earth on December 19, 1972.
| № | Astronauts | Date and time of launch and return to Earth, time in flight, h:m:s | Tasks and results of the flight | Date and time of landing and takeoff from the moon | Time spent on the Moon / total time of exits to the lunar surface | Mass of delivered lunar soil, kg |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apollo 7 | Walter Schirra, Donn Eisel, Walter Cunningham | 11.10.1968 15:02:45 - 22.10.1968 11:11:48 / 260:09:03 | The first tests of the Apollo spacecraft in low Earth orbit | - | - | - |
| Apollo 8 | Frank Borman, James Lovell, William Anders | 21.12.1968 12:51:00 - 27.12.1968 15:51:42 / 147:00:42 | First manned flyby of the Moon, entry into the atmosphere with the second cosmic velocity | - | - | - |
| Apollo 9 | James McDivitt, David Scott, Russell Schweikart | 03.03.1969 16:00:00 - 13.03.1969 17:00:54 / 241:00:54 | Tests of the main and lunar spacecraft in near-Earth orbit, development of compartment rebuilding | - | - | - |
| Apollo 10 | Thomas Stafford, Eugene Cernan, John Young | 18.05.1969 16:49:00 - 26.05.1969 16:52:23 / 192:03:23 | Tests of the main and lunar spacecraft in lunar orbit, development of rebuilding compartments and maneuvers in lunar orbit | - | - | - |
| Apollo 11 | Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin, Michael Collins | 16.07.1969 13:32:00 - 24.07.1969 16:50:35 / 195:18:35 | First landing on the moon | 20.07.1969 20:17:40 - 21.07.1969 17:54:01 | 21 h 36 min / 2 h 32 min | 21.7 |
| Apollo 12 | Charles Conrad, Alan Bean, Richard Gordon | 14.11.1969 16:22:00 - 24.11.1969 20:58:24 / 244:36:24 | Second landing on the moon. | 19.11.1969 06:54:35 - 20.11.1969 14:25:47 |
31 h 31 min / 7 h 45 min |
34.4 |
| Apollo 13 | James Lovell, John Swigert, Fred Hayes | 11.04.1970 19:13:00 - 17.04.1970 18:07:41 / 142:54:41 | The landing on the moon did not take place due to the accident of the ship. Flyby of the Moon and return to Earth. | - | - | - |
| Apollo 14 | Alan Shepard, Edgar Mitchell, Stuart Rusa | 01.02.1971 21:03:02 - 10.02.1971 21:05:00 / 216:01:58 | Third landing on the moon. | 05.02.1971 09:18:11 - 06.02.1971 18:48:42 | 33 h 31 min / 9 h 23 min | 42.9 |
| Apollo 15 | David Scott, James Irvine, Alfred Worden | 26.07.1971 13:34:00 - 07.08.1971 20:45:53 / 295:11:53 | Fourth moon landing | 30.07.1971 22:16:29 - 02.08.1971 17:11:22 | 66 h 55 min / 18 h 35 min | 76.8 |
| Apollo 16 | John Young, Charles Duke, Thomas Mattingly | 16.04.1972 17:54:00 - 27.04.1972 19:45:05 / 265:51:05 | Fifth moon landing | 21.04.1972 02:23:35 - 24.04.1972 01:25:48 | 71 h 2 min / 20 h 14 min | 94.7 |
| Apollo 17 | Eugene Cernan, Harrison Schmitt, Ronald Evans | 07.12.1972 05:33:00 - 19.12.1972 19:24:59 / 301:51:59 | Sixth moon landing | 11.12.1972 19:54:57 - 14.12.1972 22:54:37 | 75 h 00 min / 22 h 04 min | 110.5 |
Program cost
In March 1966, NASA told Congress that the cost of the thirteen-year Apollo program, which would include six moon landings between July 1969 and December 1972, would be approximately $22.718 billion.
According to Steve Garber, curator of the NASA history site, the final cost of the Apollo program was between $20 billion and $25.4 billion in 1969, or approximately $135 billion in 2005 dollars.
Canceled flights
Initially, 3 more lunar expeditions were planned - Apollo 18, -19 and -20, but NASA cut the budget to redirect funds to the development of the Space Shuttle. The remaining unused Saturn V launch vehicles and Apollo spacecraft were decided to be used for the Skylab and Soyuz-Apollo programs. Of the three Saturn Vs, only one was used to launch the Skylab station, the remaining two became museum pieces. The Apollo spacecraft, which participated in the Soyuz-Apollo program, was launched by a Saturn-1B launch vehicle.
On October 11, 1968, the first American three-seat manned spacecraft, Apollo 7, was launched into orbit by a Saturn-1B rocket. The crew included astronauts: Walter Schirra (ship commander), Don Eizel and Walter Cunningham. In a flight that lasted 10.7 days (163 orbits), the spacecraft without a lunar cabin was carefully checked. On October 22, 1968, the ship landed safely in the Atlantic Ocean.
On December 21, 1968, the Saturn 5 launch vehicle launched Apollo 8 with astronauts Frank Borman (ship commander), James Lovell and William Anders on a flight path to the Moon. It was the world's first manned spacecraft mission to the Moon. On December 24, the ship was launched into the orbit of an artificial satellite of the Moon, made 10 revolutions on it, after which it launched to the Earth and on December 27, 1968 splashed down in the Pacific Ocean. During the flight, the navigation and control system on the Earth-Moon track, the orbit around the Moon, the Moon-Earth track, the entry of the command module with the crew into the Earth's atmosphere with the second space velocity and the accuracy of splashdown in the ocean were tested. The astronauts conducted lunar photography and navigational experiments, as well as a television session.
During the flight of the Apollo 9 spacecraft, which took place on March 3-13, 1969, the lunar module and the command and service module were tested together in orbit of an artificial Earth satellite. Methods for controlling the entire space lunar complex "assembly", communication between ships and the Earth, rendezvous and docking were tested. The two astronauts in the lunar module undocked from the command module, moved away from it, and then tested the rendezvous and docking systems.
During the flight of the Apollo 10 spacecraft, which took place on May 18-26, 1969, all stages and operations of the lunar program were checked, except for the landing on the lunar surface itself. The lunar module descended to a height of 15 kilometers above the surface of the moon.
The 20th century is the era of man's breakthrough into space. Its main achievements were manned flights to near-Earth orbit, the exit of man into airless space and the development of the Earth's satellite - the Moon. The paradox is that people began to forget the contribution made by the American Apollo program (1969-1972), which allowed man to break out of his own planet, and today few people can answer the question of how many people have been to the moon.
The decision that changed the world
This year marks the 55th anniversary of the President's historic announcement of the launch of a project called Apollo. It was a response to the flight of Yuri Gagarin and the current backlog of the United States in space exploration. The lunar project was supposed not only to make a qualitative leap, glorifying the scientific and technical power of the country, but also to distract the people from the unpopular war in Vietnam. There is documentary evidence that Kennedy, after studying the financial and scientific side of the issue, proposed N.S. Khrushchev to unite the efforts of the two countries to implement lunar expeditions, trying to create a "space bridge" between the superpowers, but was refused.
Today it is known that the program cost the US 26 billion dollars. This is 10 times the cost of creating an atomic bomb. But Kennedy nevertheless made an important decision, proving the limitless possibilities of man and writing his name in history Answering the question of how many people have visited the moon, it should be remembered that 24 pilots reached its orbit, but only 12 managed to leave their mark on its surface . And before the first successful launch, there were four test ones, during the preparation for which three astronauts died in January 1967.
First crew
Apollo 11 became the spacecraft that brought the first successful expedition to the surface of the moon. Its launch on 07/16/1969 was shown live on television. The first days, while the ship was in near-Earth orbit, the daily video broadcast continued, testifying to the great hopes associated with this particular crew. Captain Neil Armstrong, principal pilot Michael Collins, lunar module pilot Edwin Aldrin - experienced pilots who have been in space on the Gemini spacecraft, entered the lunar orbit on the fourth day after turning on the third stage engines.
The next day, two of them transferred to the lunar module and, after activating its systems and undocking, went into a descent orbit. A feature of this expedition was that after turning on the landing engines, the pilot managed to land the module in a matter of seconds before the critical level of fuel consumption. Neil Armstrong is the first earthling to receive permission to walk on the surface of the moon. He was followed by Edwin (who changed his name to Buzz Aldrin in 1988) who performed the religious rite of communion on the moon.
After spending about 2.5 hours on the surface (the rest of the time was spent in the module), the crew collected rock samples, made video and photographs, and by July 24 safely returned to their home planet, landing in a given square.
Inspired by success
The first crew returned to the United States as heroes, and already on November 14, Apollo 12 was launched under the control of an experienced astronaut who made two flights into space on the Gemini spacecraft (1965, 1966). Pete Conrad and his comrades (Alan Bean and Richard Gordon) during the launch encountered an emergency situation associated with two lightning strikes. In front of President Nixon, who was present at the launch, electrical discharges disabled a number of sensors, causing the fuel cells to shut down. The crew managed to correct the situation in the shortest possible time.
Conrad and Bean had to spend two days on the lunar surface (an active exit was 3.5 hours). At the landing site, they encountered a cloud of dust and managed to get to the Surveyor-3 apparatus, making a significant contribution to the development of science. Due to problems with the video camera, it was not possible to make a video broadcast directly from the crew's landing site.
Included in the list of people who have been to the moon
The United States, within the framework of the Apollo program, sent 9 expeditions to the Earth's satellite. Astronauts from six crews managed to land on the moon. All of them consisted of three people, two of whom were transferred to the lunar module. After the failure in April 1970, associated with an accident on board the Apollo 13, which did not fulfill its tasks, the next successful expedition took place in February 71. Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell (by the way, they were supposed to be the crew of the 13th Apollo) managed not only to conduct seismic experiments, but also to go out into outer space twice.
David Scott and James Irwin, members of the next expedition (July 1971), and John Young and Charles Duke (April 1972), who made a long trip on a lunar rover, spent three days on the surface of the Earth's satellite. The Apollo 17 crew put an end to the implementation of the lunar program. Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt made their last flight in December 1972, and Cernan managed to scribble his daughter's initials at parting. For him, this was the second flight to the Earth's satellite, like three of his comrades. But when answering the question of how many people have visited the moon, it should be borne in mind that only once each of them touched the lunar surface.
End of the Apollo program
Today, the launch pad owned by the US Air Force is in disrepair. Despite the supposed continuation of the Apollo launches, none of the three subsequent launches was carried out. The main reason is the huge costs that do not bring a new breakthrough in space exploration. Of the 12 heroes who escaped from near-Earth space, nine survived. Their life does not resemble the life of Hollywood stars. All of them soon left NASA, almost forgotten by their fellow citizens. Surprisingly, the first flight participants received the highest US award (Congressional Gold Medal) only on the fortieth anniversary of the launch.
When asked how many people have landed on the moon, many people today say "none". These are those who share the "conspiracy theory" that appeared with the light hand of the writer Bill Kaysing, who questioned the reality of the flights to the moon. Defending his honor, 72-year-old Buzz Aldrin, at a respectable age, publicly hit a journalist in the face who expressed his doubts. In 2009, the United States presented to the public images from satellites confirming the traces of astronauts on the surface of the Earth's satellite.
The completion of the program and the lack of interaction in this direction between the two space powers is very sad, because it can become a bridge on the path of future flights to Mars.
