Apollo Program

Nation: USA. Program Started: 12/15/58. Program Ended: 12/7/72. Overview:
The successful US project
to land a man on the moon. For complete details see Apollo Lunar Surface
Journal.. 
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12/29/61 Apollo Milestone. - 

Dr. Hugh L. Dryden, Deputy Administrator of NASA, speaking in Denver before
the American
Association for the Advancement of Science, said: "The sheer magnitude of
the manned lunar exploration
program, amounting as it will to $3 billion or more [in fiscal year 1963],
represents a significant application
of the Nation's resources. These billions of dollars will be spent in the
laboratories, workshops, and factories of
the Nation and thus constitute a significant factor in the Nation's
employment and economy generally. The
personnel in the space program are not all scientists and engineers but come
from every walk of life." 
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7/11/62 Selection of LOR as Mission Mode - Launch Vehicle: Saturn V . 

Following long series of studies, meetings, etc. Lunar Orbit Rendezvous
selected as fastest, cheapest, and safest
mode. LOR finally selected by STG as only method that solved engineering
problem of how to land; a CSM
in direct mode would have crew on their backs and have to use TV, mirrors,
etc. to see surface, and lunar
crasher had finally emerged as lesser of evils as far as landing. LOR
allowed purpose-built lander with logical
layout. Studies indicated LOR would allow landing 6-8 months earlier and
cost $9.2 billion vs $ 10.6 billion
for EOR or direct. Direct flight would not involve Nova, but a scaled-down
two-man spacecraft that could
be launched by Saturn C-5. 
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                   APOLLO 11 - MISSION TO THE MOON

                Project Apollo in general, and the flight of Apollo 11 in
particular, should be
                viewed as a watershed in the nation's history. It was an
endeavor that
                demonstrated both the technological and economic virtuousity
of the United
      States and established national preeminence over rival nations--the
primary goal of the
      program when first envisioned by the Kennedy administration in 1961.
It had been an
      enormous undertaking, costing $25.4 billion (about $95 billion in 1990
dollars) with only
      the building of the Panama Canal rivaling the Apollo program's size as
the largest
      non-military technological endeavor ever undertaken by the United
States.
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