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astronaut, Apollo missions would
need a crew of three. In addition,
a more reliable power source was
needed and much more experience
in space. The world’s first fuel cells
were built to provide the power.
Project Gemini, NASA’s second
human spaceflight program,
provided the skills, with endurance
spaceflights, orbital maneuvers,
and space walks. Scientists also
needed to know more about the
moon’s surface. A deep layer of
dust could swallow up a spacecraft
and prevent it from leaving, clog
up the thrusters, or cause the
electronics to malfunction.
Unmanned fact-finding
missions were mounted in parallel
with Apollo, but the first wave of
robotic explorers dispatched to the
moon was an unmitigated failure.
Six Ranger landers failed on launch,
missed the moon, or crashed on
impact, causing the program
to be nicknamed “shoot and hope.”
Luckily, the final three Rangers
were more successful.
Between 1966 and 1967, five
Lunar Orbiter satellites were placed
in orbit around the moon. They
mapped 99 percent of the surface
and helped to identify potential
Apollo landing sites. NASA’s
seven Surveyor spacecraft also
demonstrated the feasibility of
a soft landing on the lunar soil.A gamble and a disaster
At 363 ft (110.5 m), Saturn V—the
heavy-lift booster that carried the
Apollo astronauts out of Earth’s
atmosphere—is still the tallest,
heaviest, and most powerful rocket
ever built. “Man-rating” the rocket
(certifying it to carry a human crew)
proved particularly troublesome.
The mammoth engines generated
vibrations that threatened to breakTHE SPACE RACE
the rocket apart. Knowing that
the project was behind schedule,
NASA’s associate administrator
for manned spaceflight, George
Mueller, pioneered a daring “all-up”
testing regime. Rather than the
cautious stage-by-stage approach
favored by von Braun, Mueller
had the entire Apollo–Saturn
systems tested together.
While striving for perfection,
the NASA engineers developed
a new engineering concept: that
of redundancy. Key or critical
components were duplicated in
order to increase overall reliability.
The Mercury and Gemini projects
had taught engineers to expect
unforeseen risks. A fully assembled
Apollo vehicle had 5.6 million
parts, and 1.5 million systems,
subsystems, and assemblies.From this day forward,
Flight Control will be known
by two words: “Tough
and Competent.”
Gene KranzThe Saturn V rocket was developed
for the Apollo program. Many private
corporations were involved in its
production, including Boeing,
Chrysler, Lockheed, and Douglas.The Lunar Orbiter satellites took
images of potential landing sites. In
1966, Lunar Orbiter 2 sent back this
image of Copernicus Crater, one of the
first-ever close-up views of the moon.