1969

Lunar Landing

Every part of the mission to land men on the moon involved an engineered solution: the rockets, the spacecraft, the life support systems, the space suits, the power supplies … even the food and its packaging. Nothing was left to chance.

The whole endeavor centered on the mission architecture. The goal was to land a human on the moon and bring him back safely. The time frame was limited because of fear that the Soviet Union would get there first. So the engineers designed an architecture that was both amazing and surprising.

When the Saturn V took off from its launch pad, it weighed about 6.5 million pounds (3 million kg). This was the entire self-contained package needed to fly to the moon and return. After 150 seconds the first stage was done and fell away. The package was 5 million (2.3 million kg) pounds lighter. The second stage dropped off 360 seconds later, eliminating another million pounds (454,000 kg). The third stage burned twice. The first burn put the spacecraft in orbit around the Earth. The second sent the spacecraft toward the moon, aka trans-lunar injection. When it fell away, 260,000 pounds (118,000 kg) went with it.

The lunar excursion module (LEM) came out of its fairing and docked with the command/service module (CSM). The LEM had two parts: the descent stage and the ascent stage. The LEM landed on the moon using the descent stage on July 20, 1969. The astronauts spent their time on the lunar surface. Then the ascent stage brought them back into lunar orbit to rendezvous with the CSM again. They discarded the ascent stage and the CSM brought everyone back to Earth orbit. They jettisoned the service module and the command module came back to Earth, using the heat shield and three parachutes to make a safe landing. When the command module hit the water, it weighed about 13,000 pounds (5,900 kg). It contained about 500 pounds of astronauts and 47 pounds of moon rocks.

Who could conceive of a plan so complicated, and yet so perfect for accomplishing the stated goal? And then make those many parts work flawlessly so many miles from home? Engineers.

SEE ALSO Space Suit (1969), Lunar Rover (1971).

Astronaut John W. Young on the moon during the Apollo 16 mission.