What was the Apollo Project?

Answer 1

NASA's Apollo project was the one which took the US to the moon. It followed on from the Mercury and Gemini missions which tested many of the human and technical procedures in preparation for the lunar missions.

It began tragically with the death of the crew of Apollo one in a capsule fire which killed the crew of three during a training session. Apollo 8 was the first to actually go to the moon after several Apollo missions in earth orbit. Apollo 11, commanded by Neil Armstrong, was the first to make a lunar landing and thus Armstrong went down in the history books as the first man to step on the lunar surface on July 20 1969.

Six more missions followed, all successfully making lunar landings except for Apollo13. On this mission, an electrical fire in the service module left the spacecraft critically low in oxygen and electrical power on the outward journey. The international effort to bring the crew home was an amazing demonstration of how the seemingly impossible can be achieved through team effort.

Further missions beyond Apollo 17 had been planned, but these were cut due to the waning public interest and the subsequent lack of motivation to provide funding. Attention shifted to the development of the space shuttle.