Apollo Program

IINTRODUCTION Apollo Program, American manned lunar-space program designed to land an astronaut on the moon and return him safely to earth, as well as to overtake the former Soviet Union in the race to dominate space exploration. Conducted between May 1961 and December 1972 by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the program successfully landed Neil Armstrong-the first person to walk on the moon-and 11 other astronauts on the moon. The program included 12 manned missions: 2 into earth …

…by Apollos 12 and 15 through 17) were finally turned off by NASA in 1977. The experiments carried out on the Apollo missions provided important information about the moon as well as the solar system. A total of 381.7 kg (841 lb) of lunar material was returned from six unique and scientifically significant lunar locations. Additionally, almost 30,000 high-resolution photographs were taken on the surface and from orbit during Apollo missions, recording the characteristics and features of the moon in great detail.