" We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do  the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too."   ~ President Kennedy's Address at Rice University on the Nation's Space Effort; Houston, Texas; September 12, 1962

The Apollo program was the third space program administered by NASA.  The main goal of Apollo was to land a human on the moon.  It was President Kennedy's vision to land an American on the moon.  He challenged America, and inspired it to rise up to the challenge. He also trusted that NASA and Americans could do this, so he got out of their way, and let them run with it.

The Apollo program was designed to land humans on the Moon and bring them safely back to Earth.  Apollo included 5 unmanned test missions and 12 manned missions.  The 12 manned missions include two Earth orbiting missions, two lunar orbiting missions, a lunar swingby, six Moon landing missions, and one tragedy.  Apollo 1 was to be the first of the Apollo flights to put men in space, but a fire in the Command Module during a launch pad test on January 27, 1967 brought the Apollo program to a halt.  Due to this tragedy, NASA delayed manned flights for a year while it researched what went wrong and fixed it.
 
 

Last Updated May 15, 2000                                                                                                                    a SCEN103 Project