At the time, very little about the actual moon spacecraft itself was baked. When compared to the Saturn V rocket itself, it was the least developed part of the entire Apollo system in terms of concept and planning. Additionally, at the time, very few aeronautics contractors knew anything about building actual spacecraft, let alone something that could land on the moon and bring the astronauts home. After all, the first Americans were just being launched into orbit during Project Mercury at the time when any of this was under consideration.
Nobody at Grumman had any experience with spacecraft, so this was entirely new territory for the company. LOR was one of three mission profiles considered for the moon landing and was not the front runner for consideration. The others were Earth Orbit Rendezvous and Direct Ascent , the latter of which was the initial candidate.
It became clear to Grumman that LOR made the most practical sense, as it required only one launch vehicle and the use of two specialized spacecraft, a Command Module to carry the astronauts to lunar orbit and to survive the forces and temperatures of terrestrial re-entry upon return, and the other a Lunar Module specifically for the landing and return to lunar orbit which would not be constrained by aerodynamics in the vacuum of space. A "Buck Rogers" style for Direct Ascent as shown in many early Science Fiction movies of the period would have been too expensive and very difficult to engineer within the schedule-driven constraints of the Apollo Program.
The EOR profile had its merits, but once LOR had been proven as viable, it was chosen as the mission profile for the landing. Grumman quickly found out, however, that its proposal response, which included actual conceptual designs for the spacecraft, was just a "Final Exam. The Lunar Module had to be completely re-designed from the ground up, and Grumman ended up working very closely with the Johnson Space Center in finalizing a design.
For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page. High-resolution JPEG x IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and image viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. View Manifest. View in Mirador Viewer. Two-stage vehicle; ascent stage with 3 windows two forward, one overhead , two hatches, docking mechanism; descent stage module with 4 legs; modified to appear like Apollo 11 Lunar Module "Eagle".
Grumman technicians built the Lunar Module. Grumman was a chief supplier of aircraft for the U. As such, it was accustomed to designing craft that could withstand the hard landings on an aircraft carrier. Two other unfired modules already are preserved in museum settings No.
Grumman's facility in Bethpage, New York, designed and produced the lunar modules, which would orbit the moon, attached to command and service modules. The LM's module design was economical because each could be designed for specialized functions of exploration and re-entry operations.
Thomas J. Kelley, who served as the engineering manager and eventually deputy program manager for the lunar module program, has recalled in the past, "We didn't know anything about space anymore than most people did at that time. But we did know a lot about producing reliable flying machines. Thirteen lunar modules were built and six landed on the moon. The last Apollo flight took place in December , with Apollo The crash sites of most are known - but no-one is quite sure where the ascent stages of Apollo 11's module Eagle or Apollo 16's module Orion ended up.
How did the US put the first men on the Moon? To the Moon and beyond. Image source, NASA. Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins practises in the simulator in June - one month before launch.
Saturn V is still the largest and most powerful rocket ever built. Interactive: Explore Apollo in 3D.
Will humans be back on the Moon by ? Apollo's crew compartment was about the same size as a large car. It was no place for the claustrophobic. Image source, Getty Images. This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
African-American women skilled in maths helped to work out the route to the Moon. Katherine Johnson, pictured here in , spent 33 years working for Nasa.
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