The New Childrens Encyclopedia

APOLLO TIMELINE

GETTING THERE

The Apollo

program

In the early 1960s, Russia was ahead

in the space race, so President

Kennedy announced that American

astronauts would land on the Moon

before 1970. In July 1969, after

spending 25 billion dollars on the

Apollo program, they did.

22

First man on the Moon Apollo 11

was the first manned mission to

land on the Moon. On July 20,

1969, the lunar module Eagle

landed and Neil Armstrong made

the first lunar footprint.

1966 1967 1969

January 27

Gus Grissom, Edward White, and

Roger Chaffee were killed on the

launch pad by a fire in their Apollo

spacecraft during a launch test.

February 26

First unmanned test flight of

Saturn 1B rocket. It eventually

carried the first manned Apollo

test flight to orbit the Earth.

December 21

First manned flight

around the Moon.

July 20

Apollo 11 makes

the first manned

landing on the

Moon.

October 11

First manned

Apollo flight tests

the Command Module

in Earth orbit.

1968

O The astronauts’ journey to the

Moon would not have been

possible without the Saturn V,

the most powerful rocket ever

built. The huge, three stage

rocket towered 360 ft (110 m)

above the Florida launch pad.

After the first two stages ran out

of fuel, they were released and

the third stage was used to boost

the Apollo spacecraft and its crew

toward the Moon.

SPACE