Apollo and America's Moon Landing Program - Chariots for Apollo: a History of Manned Lunar Spacecraft (NASA SP-4205 Illustrated Edition) - Lunar and Command Module Development, First Lunar Landing

Apollo and America's Moon Landing Program - Chariots for Apollo: a History of Manned Lunar Spacecraft (NASA SP-4205 Illustrated Edition) - Lunar and Command Module Development, First Lunar Landing
Author: World Spaceflight News
Publisher:
Total Pages: 533
Release: 2017-08-29
Genre:
ISBN: 9781549623875
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This official NASA history document is a great review of the development of the Apollo spacecraft - the lunar module (LM) and the Command Service Module (CSM) - and the overall history of the moon landing program.The foreword states: " The story of Apollo is a remarkable chapter in the history of mankind. How remarkable will be determined by future generations as they attempt to assess and understand the relationship and significance of the Apollo achievements to the development of mankind. We hope that this book will contribute to their assessments and assist in their judgments. Writing the history of Apollo has been a tremendous undertaking. There is so much to tell; there are so many facets. The story of Apollo is filled with facts and figures about complex machines, computers, and facilities, and intricate maneuvers - these are the things with which the Apollo objectives were achieved. But a great effort has also been made to tell the real story of Apollo, to identify and describe the decisions and actions of men and women that led to the creation and operation of those complex machines." The preface notes: "Chariots for Apollo: A History of Manned Lunar Spacecraft begins with the creation of NASA itself and with the definition of a manned space flight program to follow Mercury. It ends with Apollo 11, when America attained its goal of the 1960s, landing the first men on the moon and returning them to the earth. The focal points of this story are the spacecraft - the command and service modules and the lunar module. The 14 chapters cover three phases of spacecraft evolution: defining and designing the vehicles needed to do the job, developing and qualifying (or certifying) them for the task, and operating them to achieve the objective. Like most large-scale research and development projects, Apollo began haltingly. NASA, with few resources and a program not yet approved, started slowly. Ad hoc committees and the field centers studied, tested, reported, and suggested, looking for the best way to make the voyage. Many aerospace industrial firms followed the same line, submitting the results of their findings to NASA and hoping to get their bids in early for a piece of the program."Contents include: Chapter 1 - Concept to Challenge * 1957 to Mid-1961 * Forging a National Space Policy * The Starting * The Goett Committee * Focusing the Aim * Priming the Pipeline * The Feasibility Studies * Portents for Apollo * The Challenge * Chapter 2 - Project Planning and Contracting * May through December 1961 * Committees at Work * Spacecraft Development Decision * Astronavigation - The First Apollo Contract * Contracting for the Command Module * Influences on Booster Determination * Help from the Department of Defense * Choice of Facilities * The Launch Vehicle: Question and Decision * Chapter 3 - Contending Modes * 1959 to Mid-1962 * Proposals: Before and after May 1961 * LOR Gains a NASA Adherent * Early Reaction to LOR * Analysis of LOR * Settling the Mode Issue * Casting the Die * Chapter 4 - Matching Modules and Missions * 1962 * The Team and the Tools * Preliminary Designs for the Lunar Lander * Pressures by PSAC * Fitting the Lunar Module into Apollo * NASA Adjustments for Apollo * NASA-Grumman Negotiations * End of a Phase * Chapter 5 - Command Module and Program Changes * 1963-1964 * The Headquarters Role * Command Module: Problems and Progress * Chapter 6 - Lunar Module * 1963-1964 * External Design * Tailoring the Cockpit * Hatches and Landing Gear * Engines, Large and Small * Environment and Electricity * The "Sub-Prime" and the Radar Problem * Guidance and Navigation * Mockup Reviews * The Lunar Module and the Apollo Program * Chapter 7 - Searching for Order * 1965 * Program Direction and the Command Module * Lunar Module Refinement * The LEM Test Program: A Pacing Item * The Manned Factor * Portents for Operations * more

Chariots for Apollo

Chariots for Apollo
Author: Courtney G. Brooks
Publisher: Courier Corporation
Total Pages: 578
Release: 2012-05-14
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0486140938
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This illustrated history by a trio of experts is the definitive reference on the Apollo spacecraft and lunar modules. It traces the vehicles' design, development, and operation in space. More than 100 photographs and illustrations.

Chariots for Apollo

Chariots for Apollo
Author: National Aeronautics Administration
Publisher: CreateSpace
Total Pages: 526
Release: 2013-10
Genre:
ISBN: 9781493625291
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Apollo was America's program to land men on the moon and get them safely back to the earth. In May 1961 President Kennedy gave the signal for planning and developing the machines to take men to that body. This decision, although bold and startling at the time, was not made at random nor did it lack a sound engineering base. Subcommittees of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), predecessor of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), had regularly surveyed aeronautical needs and pointed out problems for immediate resolution and specific areas for advanced research. After NASA's creation in October 1958, its leaders (many of them former NACA officials) continued to operate in this fashion and, less than a year later, set up a group to study what the agency should do in near−earth and deep−space exploration. Among the items listed by that group was a lunar landing, a proposal also discussed in circles outside NASA as a means for achieving and demonstrating technological supremacy in space. From the time Russia launched its first Sputnik in October 1957, many Americans had viewed the moon as a logical goal. A two-nation space race subsequently made that destination America's national objective for the 1960s. America had a program, Project Mercury, to put man in low-earth orbit and recover him safely. In July 1960 NASA announced plans to follow Mercury with a program, later named Apollo, to fly men around the moon. Soon thereafter, several industrial firms were awarded contracts to study the feasibility of such an enterprise. The companies had scarcely finished this task when the Russians scored again, orbiting the first space traveler, Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, on 12 April 1961. Three weeks later the Americans succeeded in launching Astronaut Alan Shepard into a suborbital arc. These events and other pressures to get America moving provided the popular, political, and technological foundations upon which President Kennedy could base his appeal for support from the Congress and the American people for the Apollo program. The Apollo story has many pieces: How and why did it start? What made it work? What did it accomplish? What did it mean? Some of its visible (and some not so visible) parts the launch vehicles, special facilities, administration, Skylab program, Apollo−Soyuz Test Project, as examples, have been recorded by the NASA History Office and some have not. A single volume treating all aspects of Apollo, whatever they were, must await the passage of time to permit a fair perspective. At that later date, this manuscript may seem narrow in scope and perhaps it is. But among present readers, particularly those who were Apollo program participants there are some who argue that the text is too broad and that their specialties receive short shrift. Moreover, some top NASA leaders during Apollo's times contend, perhaps rightly, that the authors were not familiar with all the nuances of some of the accounts set down here. Chariots for Apollo: A History of Manned Lunar Spacecraft begins with the creation of NASA itself and with the definition of a manned space flight program to follow Mercury. It ends with Apollo 11, when America attained its goal of the 1960s, landing the first men on the moon and returning them to the earth. The focal points of this story are the spacecraft the command and service modules and the lunar module.

Chariots for Apollo

Chariots for Apollo
Author: Charles R. Pellegrino
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Total Pages: 356
Release: 1999
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780380802616
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The fascinating and true story of one of America's greatest scientific achievements: the race to put a man on the Moon and bring him home safely.

Apollo and America's Moon Landing Program - Managers Explain What Made Apollo a Success, The First Lunar Landing as Told by the Astronauts, Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) Historical Perspective

Apollo and America's Moon Landing Program - Managers Explain What Made Apollo a Success, The First Lunar Landing as Told by the Astronauts, Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) Historical Perspective
Author: World Spaceflight News
Publisher:
Total Pages: 136
Release: 2018-01-05
Genre:
ISBN: 9781976811975
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These official NASA history documents provide unique accounts of the Apollo lunar landing program. The first document, What Made Apollo A Success? (NASA SP-287) describes three of the basic ingredients of the success of Apollo: spacecraft hardware that is most reliable, flight missions that are extremely well planned and executed, and flight crews that are superbly trained and skilled. Contents: Introduction by George M. Low; Design Principles Stressing Simplicity by Kenneth S. Kleinknecht; Testing To Ensure Mission Success by Scott H. Simpkinson; Apollo Crew Procedures, Simulation, And Flight Planning by Warren J. North And C. H. Woodling; Flight Control In The Apollo Program by Eugene F. Kranz And James Otis Covington; Action On Mission Evaluation And Flight Anomalies by Donald D. Arabian; Techniques Of Controlling The Trajectory by Howard W. Tindall, Jr.; Flexible Yet Disciplined Mission Planning by C. C. Kraft, Jr., J. P. Mayer, C. R. Huss, And R. P. Parten. The introduction states: We will limit ourselves to those tasks that were the direct responsibility of the NASA Manned Spacecraft Center: spacecraft development, mission design and mission planning, flight crew operations, and flight operations. We will describe spacecraft design principles, the all-important spacecraft test activities, and the discipline that evolved in the control of spacecraft changes and the closeout of spacecraft anomalies; and we will discuss how we determined the best series of flights to lead to a lunar landing at the earliest possible time, how these flights were planned in detail, the techniques used in establishing flight procedures and carrying out flight operations, and, finally, crew training and simulation activities - the activities that led to a perfect flight execution by the astronauts. The First Lunar Landing As Told By The Astronauts Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins in a Post-flight Press Conference, the second document in this ebook compilation, is a transcript of the Apollo 11 conference. It's a description of man's historic first trip to another celestial body by the men who made the journey. Neil Armstrong, commander of Apollo 11, began the first-hand report to the world of the epic voyage of Eagle and Columbia to the Moon and back to Earth. After 24 hours in lunar orbit Armstrong and Aldrin separated Eagle from Columbia, to prepare for descent to the lunar surface. On July 20 at 4:18 p.m. EDT, the Lunar Module touched down on the Moon at Tranquility Base. Armstrong reported "The Eagle Has Landed." And at 10:56 p.m., Armstrong, descending from Eagle's ladder and touching one foot to the Moon's surface, announced: "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." Aldrin soon joined Armstrong. Before a live television camera which they set up on the surface, they performed their assigned tasks. The third and final document, The Lunar Roving Vehicle - Historical Perspective, is a detailed examination of the success of the moon rover by an engineer at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The purpose of this paper is to raise the consciousness level of the current space exploration planners to what, in the early 1970s, was a highly successful roving vehicle. During the Apollo program, the vehicle known as the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) was designed for carrying two astronauts, their tools, and the equipment needed for rudimentary exploration of the Moon. This paper contains a discussion of the vehicle, its characteristics, and its use on the Moon. Conceivably, the LRV has the potential to meet some future requirements, either with relatively low cost modifications or via an evolutionary route. This aspect, however, is left to those who would choose to further study these options.

Remembering the Giants

Remembering the Giants
Author: Steven C. Fisher
Publisher: CreateSpace
Total Pages: 207
Release: 2009
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781493656462
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On April 25, 2006, NASA's John C. Stennis Space Center hosted a series of lectures on Apollo Propulsion development. This monograph is a transcript of the event, held as part of the celebration to mark the 40th anniversary of the first rocket engine test conducted at the site then known as the Mississippi Test Facility. On April 23, 1966, engineers tested a cluster of five J-2 engines that powered the second stage of the Saturn V moon rocket.

Apollo and America's Moon Landing Program

Apollo and America's Moon Landing Program
Author: World Spaceflight News
Publisher:
Total Pages: 404
Release: 2017-08-31
Genre:
ISBN: 9781549640520
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This comprehensive official NASA history document is an crucial reference to the day-by-day activities and decisions which led to the overwhelming success of the Apollo moon landing program. All four volumes of the Chronology are included in his massive conversion - part one reproduces Volumes 1 and 2, while part two reproduces Volumes 3 and 4. The preface to Volume 1 states: "The intent of the authors is to concentrate on the important events that have affected the concept, design, and development of the Apollo spacecraft rather than to cover in detail the entire Apollo program. In keeping with this intent, the authors have tried to give a balanced overview of the Apollo spacecraft program, not limiting the chronology to the activities of a single NASA Center. Volume 1 Part I, "Concept to Apollo," reviews the earliest years up to the official announcement of the Apollo program. Part II, "Design-Decision-Contract," continues through the selection of the principal contractor for the command and service modules. Part III, "Lunar Orbit Rendezvous: Mode and Module," completes Volume I, ending with the naming of the contractor for the lunar module. As far as possible, primary sources were consulted. These included congressional documents, Apollo program status reports, Manned Spacecraft Center and Apollo Spacecraft Project Office weekly activity reports, contractors' progress reports, Apollo working papers, letters, memoranda, NASA and industry staff reports, minutes of meetings, and interviews with persons directly involved in the early years of the Apollo program. In addition, books, newspaper accounts, press releases, chronologies, and magazine articles were researched for material." Volume 1 covers the period through 1962; Volume 2 from 1962 to 1964; Volume 3 from 1964 to 1966; and the final volume from 1966 to 1974. The foreword to Volume 4 reads: "The events that took place during that period included all flight tests of the Apollo spacecraft, as well as the last five Gemini flights, the AS-204 accident, the AS-204 Review Board activities, the Apollo Block II Redefinition Tasks, the manned Apollo flight program and its results, as well as further use of the Apollo spacecraft in the Skylab missions. The manned flights of Apollo, scheduled to begin in early 1967, were delayed by the tragic accident that occurred on January 27, 1967, during a simulated countdown for mission AS-204. A fire inside the command module resulted in the deaths of the three prime crew astronauts, Virgil I. Grissom, Edward H. White II, and Roger B. Chaffee. On January 28, 1967, the Apollo 204 Review Board was established to investigate the accident. It was determined that action should be initiated to reduce the crew risk by eliminating unnecessary hazardous conditions that would imperil future missions. Therefore, on April 27, a NASA Task Team - Block II Redefinition, CSM - was established to provide input on detailed design, overall quality and reliability, test and checkout, baseline specification, configuration control, and schedules." In this chronology, as with any collection of written communications on a given project, the negative aspects of the program, its faltering and its failures, become more apparent because these are the areas that require written communication for corrective action. However, it should be stressed that in spite of the failures, the moon was reached by traveling an unparalleled path of success for an undertaking so complex. The disastrous fire at Cape Kennedy had given the Apollo program a drastic setback. But when Apollo 7 was launched, the first manned flight in nearly two years, it was a success. Every spacecraft since that time improved in performance with the exception of the problems experienced in Apollo 13.