Project Apollo

(click to enlarge)
Apollo 15 spacecraft as it lifts off from Cape Kennedy, Florida, U.S., atop a Saturn V three-stage … (credit: NASA)

NASA manned Moon-landing project of the 1960s and '70s. The Apollo spacecraft, supplied with their own low-powered rockets, could brake on approach to the Moon and go into lunar orbit. They also could release part of the spacecraft, the lunar module, with its own rocket power, to land astronauts on the Moon and bring them back to the lunar orbiter. In July 1969 Apollo 11 made the first lunar landing (see Edwin Aldrin; Neil Armstrong). In 1970 Apollo 13 was damaged by an explosion in an oxygen tank but returned safely to Earth. Later Apollo missions explored the lunar surface extensively, collecting samples of Moon rocks and installing instruments for research. Apollo 17, the program's final lunar flight, took place in 1972. In total, 12 American astronauts walked on the Moon during six successful lunar-landing missions.

For more information on Apollo, visit Britannica.com.

A series of space flights undertaken by the United States with a goal of landing a man on the moon. Each Apollo flight carried a crew of three astronauts. The first lunar landing by humans was achieved by Apollo 11 on July 20, 1969. Five other successful lunar landings followed. The Apollo program ended in 1974. It was named after the Greek god of learning, Apollo.

• Neil Armstrong was the first man to set foot on the moon.

U.S. Space Program which included 6 piloted lunar landings between 1969 and 1972. Apollo astronauts collected and returned 382 kilograms of rock and sediment samples from the Moon.

The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: a program of space flights undertaken by US to land a man on the moon