Apollo program

Apollo program insignia

The Apollo programme (or Project Apollo) consisted of a series of manned and unmanned NASA space flights from 1961 until 1975. Its main goal was to land men to the Moon, and its total cost was about $25.4 milliard.

Launch vehicles

The Apollo programme used four types of launch vehicles (LV):

• Little Joe II: unmanned sub-orbital launch escape system development.
• Saturn I: unmanned sub-orbital and orbital hardware development.
• Saturn IB: unmanned and manned Earth orbit development and operational flights.
• Saturn V: unmanned and manned Earth orbit and lunar flights.

The Marshall Space Flight Centre, which designed the Saturn rockets, referred to the flights as Saturn-Apollo (SA), whereas Kennedy Space Centre referred to the flights as Apollo-Saturn (AS). This is why the unmanned Saturn 1 flights are referred to as SA, and the unmanned Saturn 1B are referred to as AS. Dates given below are dates of launch.

Unmanned flights

Saturn I

Flight	LV Serial No.	Launch Date	Launch Time	Remarks
SA-1	S-101	27 October 1961	15:06 GMT	Test of the Saturn 1 Rocket
SA-2	S-102	25 April 1962	14:00 GMT	Test of the S-1 Rocket and carried 109 m3 of water into the upper atmosphere to investigate effects on radio transmission and changes in local weather conditions
SA-3	AS-103	16 November 1962	17:45 GMT	Repeat of the SA-2 flight
SA-4	AS-104	28 March 1963	20:11 GMT	Test effects of premature engine shutdown
SA-5	AS-105	29 January 1964	16:25 GMT	First flight of live second stage
SA-6 (A-101)	AS-106	28 May 1964	17:07 GMT	Tested the structural integrity of a boilerplate Apollo Command and Service Module (CSM)
SA-7 (A-102)	AS-107	18 September 1964	17:22 GMT	Carried the first programmable computer on the Saturn I vehicle; last test flight
SA-9 (A-103)	AS-109	16 February 1965	14:37 GMT	Carried Pegasus A micro-meteorite satellite plus a CSM boilerplate
SA-8 (A-104)	AS-108	25 May 1965	07:35 GMT	Carried Pegasus B micro-meteorite satellite plus a CSM boilerplate
SA-10 (A-105)	AS-110	30 July 1965	13:00 GMT	Carried Pegasus C micro-meteorite satellite plus a CSM boilerplate

Prof. Dr. phil. Dr. h. c. mult. Wernher Freiherr von Braun on 20 April 1962 in his office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Alabama

Pad abort tests

Flight	Launch Date	Launch Time	Remarks
Pad Abort Test-1	7 November 1963	16:00 GMT	Launch Escape System (LES) abort test from launch pad
Pad Abort Test-2	29 June 1965	13:00 GMT	LES pad abort test of near Block-I CM

Little Joe II

Flight	Launch Date	Launch Time	Remarks
QTV	28 August 1963	13:05 GMT	Little Joe II qualification test
A-001	13 May 1964	13:00 GMT	LES transonic test failed
A-002	8 December 1964	15:00 GMT	LES maximum altitude, Max-Q abort test
A-003	19 May 1965	13:01 GMT	LES canard maximum altitude abort test
A-004	20 January 1966	15:17 GMT	LES test of maximum weight, tumbling Block-I CM

Unmanned Apollo-Saturn IB and Saturn V

Some incongruity in the numbering and naming of the first three unmanned Apollo-Saturn (AS), or Apollo flights, is due to the posthumous honorary renaming of the flight which would have been AS-204, to Apollo 1. This manned flight was to have followed the already-launched unmanned AS-201, AS-202, and AS-203 flights.

After the fire which killed the AS-204 crew on the pad during a test and training exercise, further required unmanned Apollo flights with the redesigned capsule were designated Apollo 4, 5, and 6. The first manned Apollo flight was thus Apollo 7. The assignment of "Apollo 1" to a flight which was never launched thereby required that at least one of the first three previous unmanned flights be left without a simple "Apollo" number.

Flight	Rocket	LV Serial No.	Launch Date	Launch Time	Remarks
AS-201	Saturn IB	AS-201	26 February 1966	16:12 GMT	First test flight of Saturn IB rocket
AS-203	Saturn IB	AS-203	5 July 1966	14:53 GMT	Investigated effects of weightlessness on fuel tanks of S-IVB. Sometimes informally called Apollo 2.
AS-202	Saturn IB	AS-202	25 August 1966	17:15 GMT	Sub-orbital test flight of Command and Service Module. Sometimes informally called Apollo 3.
Apollo 4	Saturn V	AS-501	9 November 1967	12:00 GMT	First test of the Saturn V booster
Apollo 5	Saturn IB	AS-204	22 January 1968	22:48 GMT	Test of the Saturn IB booster and Lunar Module
Apollo 6	Saturn V	AS-502	4 April 1968	16:12 GMT	Test of the Saturn V booster
Skylab 1	Saturn INT-21	AS-513	14 May 1973	17:30 GMT	Unmanned launch of Skylab 1 workshop using Saturn INT-21 (two-stage version of the Saturn V booster). Last flight of Saturn V booster.

Manned flights

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin stands on the Moon facing a U.S. flag during the Apollo 11 mission in July 1969

Flight	Rocket	LV Serial No.	Commander	Command Module Pilot	Lunar Module Pilot	CM Name	LM Name	Launch Date	Launch Time	Duration
Apollo 1	Saturn IB	AS-204	Gus Grissom	Edward White	Roger Chaffee	N/A	No LM	21 February 1967 (Planned)	N/A	N/A
	Unlaunched – On 27 January 1967 Gus Grissom, Edward White, and Roger Chaffee were killed when a fire erupted in their Apollo spacecraft during a test on the launch pad.
Apollo 7	Saturn IB	AS-205	Wally Schirra	Donn Eisele	Walter Cunningham	N/A	No LM	11 October 1968	15:02 GMT	10d 20h 09m 03s
	First manned Apollo flight, first manned flight of the Saturn IB. Only manned Apollo launch not from LC 39.
Apollo 8	Saturn V	AS-503	Frank Borman	Jim Lovell	William Anders	N/A	No LM	21 December 1968	12:51 GMT	06d 03h 00m 42s
	First manned flight around the Moon, first manned flight of the Saturn V
Apollo 9	Saturn V	AS-504	James McDivitt	David Scott	Rusty Schweickart	Gumdrop	Spider	3 March 1969	16:00 GMT	10d 01h 00m 54s
	First manned flight of the Lunar Module
Apollo 10	Saturn V	AS-505	Thomas Stafford	John Young	Eugene Cernan	Charlie Brown	Snoopy	18 May 1969	16:49 GMT	08d 00h 03m 23s
	First manned flight of the Lunar Module around the Moon
Apollo 11	Saturn V	AS-506	Neil Armstrong	Michael Collins	Buzz Aldrin	Columbia	Eagle	16 July 1969	13:32 GMT	08d 03h 18m 35s
	First manned landing on the Moon
Apollo 12	Saturn V	AS-507	Pete Conrad	Richard Gordon	Alan Bean	Yankee Clipper	Intrepid	14 November 1969	16:22 GMT	10d 04h 36m 24s
	First precise manned landing on the Moon. Recover part of Surveyor 3 probe.
Apollo 13	Saturn V	AS-508	Jim Lovell	Jack Swigert	Fred Haise	Odyssey	Aquarius	11 April 1970	19:13 GMT	05d 22h 54m 41s
	Oxygen tank explodes en route, forcing cancellation of landing
Apollo 14	Saturn V	AS-509	Alan Shepard	Stuart Roosa	Edgar Mitchell	Kitty Hawk	Antares	31 January 1971	21:03 GMT	09d 00h 01m 58s
	Alan Shepard, the first American in space, plays golf on the Moon
Apollo 15	Saturn V	AS-510	David Scott	Alfred Worden	James Irwin	Endeavour	Falcon	26 July 1971	13:34 GMT	12d 07h 11m 53s
	First flight with the Lunar Rover vehicle
Apollo 16	Saturn V	AS-511	John Young	Ken Mattingly	Charles Duke	Casper	Orion	16 April 1972	17:54 GMT	11d 01h 51m 05s
	First landing in the lunar highlands
Apollo 17	Saturn V	AS-512	Eugene Cernan	Ronald Evans	Harrison Schmitt	America	Challenger	7 December 1972	05:33 GMT	12d 13h 51m 59s
	Final Apollo lunar flight, first night launch, only flight with a professional geologist

Cancelled lunar flights

Flight	Commander	Command Module Pilot	Lunar Module Pilot	Planned flight month	Cancellation date
Apollo 18	Richard Gordon	Vance Brand	Harrison Schmitt	February 1972	2 September 1970
	Budget cuts – NOTE: The Apollo 15 designation was re-used as Apollo 16 became 15, 17 became 16, and 18 became 17.
Apollo 19	Fred Haise	William Pogue	Gerald Carr	July 1972	2 September 1970
	Budget cuts
Apollo 20	Pete Conrad or Stuart Roosa	Paul Weitz	Jack Lousma	December 1972 to February 1973	4 January 1970
	Saturn INT-21 Launch vehicle needed to launch Skylab

Post-Apollo flights using Apollo hardware and Saturn IB

Flight	Rocket	LV Serial No.	Commander	Pilot	Science Pilot	Launch Date	Launch Time	Duration
Skylab 2	Saturn IB	AS-206	Pete Conrad	Paul Weitz	Joseph Kerwin	25 May 1973	13:00 GMT	28d 00h 49m 49s
	First crew of the Skylab Space Station
Skylab 3	Saturn IB	AS-207	Alan Bean	Jack Lousma	Owen Garriott	28 July 1973	11:10 GMT	59d 11h 09m 34s
	Second Skylab crew. SM thruster malfunction nearly necessitated a rescue mission.
Skylab 4	Saturn IB	AS-208	Gerald Carr	William Pogue	Edward Gibson	16 November 1973	14:01 GMT	84d 01h 15m 31s
	Third and final Skylab crew. Penultimate flight of Apollo.
Flight	Rocket	LV Serial No.	Commander	Command Module Pilot	Docking Module Pilot	Launch Date	Launch Time	Duration
Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP, a.k.a. Apollo 18)	Saturn IB	AS-209	Thomas Stafford	Vance Brand	Deke Slayton	15 July 1975	12:20 GMT	09d 01h 28m
	Final flight of both Apollo and the Saturn IB. Rendezvous and docking with Soyuz 19 spacecraft. Inadvertent entry of toxic gases into the cabin atmosphere created a potentially life-threatening health risk to the astronauts during re-entry.

Launch Complex (LC) utilisation

• LC 34: SA-1, SA-2, SA-3, SA-4, AS-201, AS-202, AS-204, AS-205
• LC 37A: no launches
• LC 37B: SA-5, A-101 (SA-6), A-102 (SA-7), A-103 (SA-9), A-104 (SA-8), A-105 (SA-10), AS-203, AS-204
• LC 39A: AS-501, AS-502, AS-503, AS-504, AS-506, AS-507, AS-508, AS-509, AS-510, AS-511, AS-512, AS-513
• LC 39B: AS-505, AS-206, AS-207, AS-208, AS-209

Sources

1. Apollo programme summary report, NASA, April 1975 (27 MB)
2. Chariots for Apollo, NASA, 1979 (133 MB)