In July of 1969, America first landed men on the moon and returned them safely to the earth. This historic achievement was the culmination of a national commitment inspired by President John F. Kennedy in May of 1961. The president issued this challenge to go to the moon in spite of the fact that the United States had accumulated a scant 15 minutes of spaceflight up to that time! Appropriately, the responsibility for successful accomplishment of this daunting task fell under aegis of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The specific program that NASA established to perform the lunar landing mission was known as Project Apollo.

At the inception of Project Apollo, there was no definitive concept for even getting to the moon, much less getting back to earth safely! However, in short order, the concept, hardware, and flight support infrastructure required to do so would be created by a national team that numbered in the hundreds of thousands. With the clock relentlessly ticking towards the end-of-decade goal, NASA and its contractors developed, tested, and flew the Apollo Command-Service module, the Lunar Module, and the mighty Saturn V moon rocket. Critical spaceflight navigation techniques were developed and refined including rendezvous and docking, translunar and transearth injection, lunar descent and ascent, as well as superorbital earth entry. It was Project Apollo where Man first learned to live and work in deep space and conduct scientific research on another celestial body.

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