Apollo program

Events (41)

• 1961

  5/25 — Apollo program: U.S. President John F. Kennedy announces before a special joint session of the Congress his goal to initiate a project to put a "man on the Moon" before the end of the decade.

• 1962

  1/10 — Apollo program: NASA announces plans to build the C-5 rocket launch vehicle, which became known as the Saturn V Moon rocket, which launched every Apollo Moon mission.

• 1965

  2/17 — Project Ranger: The Ranger 8 probe launches on its mission to photograph the Mare Tranquillitatis region of the Moon in preparation for the manned Apollo missions. Mare Tranquillitatis or the "Sea of Tranquility" would become the site chosen for the Apollo 11 lunar landing.

• 1965

  2/20 — Ranger 8 crashes into the Moon after a successful mission of photographing possible landing sites for the Apollo program astronauts.

• 1966

  2/26 — Apollo program: Launch of AS-201, the first flight of the Saturn IB rocket

• 1966

  9/12 — Gemini 11, the penultimate mission of NASA's Gemini program, and the current human altitude record holder (except for the Apollo lunar missions)

• 1967

  2/4 — Lunar Orbiter program: Lunar Orbiter 3 lifts off from Cape Canaveral's Launch Complex 13 on its mission to identify possible landing sites for the Surveyor and Apollo spacecraft.

• 1967

  11/9 — Apollo program: NASA launches the unmanned Apollo 4 test spacecraft atop the first Saturn V rocket from Cape Kennedy, Florida.

• 1968

  4/4 — Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 6.

• 1968

  10/11 — Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 7, the first successful manned Apollo mission, with astronauts Wally Schirra, Donn F. Eisele and Walter Cunningham aboard.

• 1968

  10/14 — Apollo program: The first live TV broadcast by American astronauts in orbit performed by the Apollo 7 crew.

• 1968

  10/22 — Apollo program: Apollo 7 safely splashes down in the Atlantic Ocean after orbiting the Earth 163 times.

• 1968

  12/21 — Apollo program: Apollo 8 is launched from the Kennedy Space Center, placing its crew on a lunar trajectory for the first visit to another celestial body by humans.

• 1968

  12/24 — Apollo program: The crew of Apollo 8 enters into orbit around the Moon, becoming the first humans to do so. They performed ten lunar orbits and broadcast live TV pictures.

• 1968

  12/25 — Apollo program: Apollo 8 performs the very first successful Trans-Earth injection (TEI) maneuver, sending the crew and spacecraft on a trajectory back to Earth from Lunar orbit.

• 1968

  12/27 — Apollo program: Apollo 8 splashes down in the Pacific Ocean, ending the first orbital manned mission to the Moon.

• 1969

  3/3 — Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 9 to test the lunar module.

• 1969

  3/13 — Apollo program: Apollo 9 returns safely to Earth after testing the Lunar Module.

• 1969

  5/18 — Apollo program: Apollo 10 is launched.

• 1969

  5/26 — Apollo program: Apollo 10 returns to Earth after a successful eight-day test of all the components needed for the forthcoming first manned moon landing.

• 1969

  7/16 — Apollo program: Apollo 11, the first mission to land astronauts on the Moon, is launched from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Kennedy, Florida.

• 1969

  7/20 — Apollo program: Apollo 11's crew successfully makes the first manned landing on the Moon in the Sea of Tranquility. Americans Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the Moon (July 21 UTC).

• 1969

  7/24 — Apollo program: Apollo 11 splashes down safely in the Pacific Ocean.

• 1969

  11/14 — Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 12, the second crewed mission to the surface of the Moon.

• 1969

  11/19 — Apollo program: Apollo 12 astronauts Pete Conrad and Alan Bean land at Oceanus Procellarum (the "Ocean of Storms") and become the third and fourth humans to walk on the Moon.

• 1969

  11/24 — Apollo program: The Apollo 12 command module splashes down safely in the Pacific Ocean, ending the second manned mission to land on the Moon.

• 1970

  4/17 — Apollo program: The ill-fated Apollo 13 spacecraft returns to Earth safely.

• 1970

  9/2 — NASA announces the cancellation of two Apollo missions to the Moon, Apollo 15 (the designation is re-used by a later mission), and Apollo 19.

• 1971

  1/31 — Apollo program: Apollo 14: Astronauts Alan Shepard, Stuart Roosa, and Edgar Mitchell, aboard a Saturn V, lift off for a mission to the Fra Mauro Highlands on the Moon.

• 1971

  2/9 — Apollo program: Apollo 14 returns to Earth after the third manned Moon landing.

• 1971

  7/26 — Apollo program: Launch of Apollo 15 on the first Apollo "J-Mission", and first use of a Lunar Roving Vehicle.

• 1971

  7/30 — Apollo program: Apollo 15 Mission: David Scott and James Irwin on the Apollo Lunar Module Falcon land on the Moon with the first Lunar Rover.

• 1971

  7/31 — Apollo program: Apollo 15 astronauts become the first to ride in a lunar rover.

• 1972

  4/16 — Apollo program: The launch of Apollo 16 from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

• 1972

  12/7 — Apollo 17, the last Apollo moon mission, is launched. The crew takes the photograph known as The Blue Marble as they leave the Earth.

• 1972

  12/11 — Apollo 17 becomes the sixth and last Apollo mission to land on the Moon.

• 1972

  12/13 — Apollo program: Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt begin the third and final extra-vehicular activity (EVA) or "Moonwalk" of Apollo 17. To date they are the last humans to set foot on the Moon.

• 1972

  12/14 — Apollo program: Eugene Cernan is the last person to walk on the moon, after he and Harrison Schmitt complete the third and final extravehicular activity (EVA) of the Apollo 17 mission.

• 1972

  12/19 — Apollo program: The last manned lunar flight, Apollo 17, crewed by Eugene Cernan, Ronald Evans, and Harrison Schmitt, returns to Earth.

• 1975

  7/15 — Space Race: Apollo-Soyuz Test Project features the dual launch of an Apollo spacecraft and a Soyuz spacecraft on the first joint Soviet-United States human-crewed flight. It was both the last launch of an Apollo spacecraft, and the Saturn family of rockets.

• 1975

  7/17 — Apollo-Soyuz Test Project: An American Apollo and a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft dock with each other in orbit marking the first such link-up between spacecraft from the two nations.