The Apollo Moon landings
The Apollo program was the United States human spaceflight program that landed the first humans on the Moon. President Kennedy challenged America to achieve this goal in his 1961 address, and Apollo 11 accomplished it on July 20, 1969, when astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the lunar surface. Five more missions landed on the Moon between 1969 and 1972, with twelve people walking there in total. Apollo matters because it stands as the only human spaceflight achievement of reaching another celestial body. The program returned 842 pounds of lunar rocks to Earth, greatly contributing to understanding the Moon's composition and geological history. Apollo also spurred major advances in avionics, telecommunications, and computers.
Sources
- en.wikipedia.org: “The Apollo program, also known as Project Apollo, was the United States human spaceflight program led by NASA, which landed the first humans on the Moon in 1969.”
- en.wikipedia.org: “Kennedy's goal was accomplished on the Apollo 11 mission, when astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed their Apollo Lunar Module (LM) on July 20, 1969, and walked on the lunar surface”
- en.wikipedia.org: “Five subsequent Apollo missions also landed astronauts on the Moon, the last, Apollo 17, in December 1972. In these six spaceflights, twelve people walked on the Moon.”
- en.wikipedia.org: “Apollo set several major human spaceflight milestones. It stands alone in sending humans to the lunar surface.”
- en.wikipedia.org: “Overall, the Apollo program returned 842 pounds (382 kg) of lunar rocks to Earth, greatly contributing to the understanding of the Moon's composition and geological history.”