Apollo was one of the Twelve Olympians and the Greek god of prophecy, healing, art, and culture. He embodied the Greek ideal of masculine beauty.
During a preflight test for what was to be the first crewed Apollo mission, a fire claimed the lives of three U.S. astronauts; Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee. After the disaster, the mission was officially designated Apollo 1.
Many are familiar with Apollo 11, the mission that landed humans on the Moon for the first time. It was part of the larger Apollo program. There were several missions during the Apollo program from 1961 to 1972. Humans landed on the moon during six missions, Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, and 17.
Apollo 11 was one of 15 Apollo missions that took place in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Learn more about the missions that paved the way for the Moon landing, and the missions where Americans returned to the Moon after.
Apollo was the Roman god who inspired prophecy, poetry, music, and medicine. Incorporated directly from the Greeks after a plague devastated Rome, he was both the bringer of and guardian against pestilence.
Apollo 8, which launched on , was the first mission to take humans to the Moon and back. While the crew did not land on the Moon's surface, the flight was an important prelude to a lunar landing, testing the flight trajectory and operations getting there and back.
The uncrewed flight reached an altitude of 11, 234 miles. The mission tested the Apollo Saturn V launch vehicle as well as the Command and Service Module CM 017. During the test, the spacecraft made two orbits, was placed on a trajectory that mimicked the approach that an Apollo spacecraft would make returning from the Moon, and then was recovered in the Pacific Ocean. Apollo 4 lasted 8 1/2 ...