Category: Apollo program

* 1972 – Apollo program: The launch of Apollo 16 from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

alt = Apollo program insignia

Apollo ran from 1961 to 1972, and was supported by the two-man Gemini program which ran concurrently with it from 1962 to 1966.

Apollo / Saturn vehicles were also used for an Apollo Applications program which consisted of three Skylab space station missions in 1973 – 74.

The Apollo program was conceived early in 1960, during the Eisenhower administration, as a follow-up to America's Mercury program.

He thought that the image of " Apollo riding his chariot across the Sun was appropriate to the grand scale of the proposed program.

" While NASA went ahead with planning for Apollo, funding for the program was far from certain given Eisenhower's ambivalent attitude to manned spaceflight.

" Despite Kennedy's rhetoric, he did not immediately come to a decision on the status of the Apollo program once he became president.

On May 25, 1961, twenty days after the first US manned spaceflight Freedom 7, Kennedy proposed the Apollo program to Congress in a special address to a joint session:

At its peak, the Apollo program employed 400, 000 people and required the support of over 20, 000 industrial firms and universities.

It became clear that managing the Apollo program would exceed the capabilities of Robert Gilruth's Space Task Group, which had been directing the nation's manned space program from NASA's Langley Research Center.

# REDIRECT Apollo program

Apollo 16 was the tenth manned mission in the United States Apollo space program, the fifth and penultimate to land on the Moon and the first to land in the lunar highlands.

Three of the first four landings in the Apollo program landed in the lunar maria ; the fourth was in the vicinity of Mare Imbrium.

Subsequently, Roosa and Mitchell were recycled to serve as members of the backup crew after returning from Apollo 14, while Pogue and Carr were re-assigned to the Skylab program where they later flew on Skylab 4.

As Apollo 16 was the penultimate mission in the Apollo program and there was no new hardware or procedures to test on the lunar surface, the last two missions ( the other being Apollo 17 ) presented opportunities for astronauts to clear up some uncertainties in understanding the Moon's properties.

As the patron of Delphi ( Pythian Apollo ), Apollo was an oracular god — the prophetic deity of the Delphic Oracle.

Medicine and healing are associated with Apollo, whether through the god himself or mediated through his son Asclepius, yet Apollo was also seen as a god who could bring ill-health and deadly plague.

However, while Apollo has a great number of appellations in Greek myth, only a few occur in Latin literature, chief among them Phoebus ( ; Φοίβος, Phoibos, literally " radiant "), which was very commonly used by both the Greeks and Romans in Apollo's role as the god of light.

As sun-god and god of light, Apollo was also known by the epithets Aegletes ( ; Αἰγλήτης, Aiglētēs, from αἴγλη, " light of the sun "), Helius ( ; Ἥλιος, Helios, literally " sun "), Phanaeus ( ; Φαναῖος, Phanaios, literally " giving or bringing light "), and Lyceus ( ; Λύκειος, Lukeios, from Proto-Greek * λύκη, " light ").

In association with his birthplace, Mount Cynthus on the island of Delos, Apollo was called Cynthius ( ; Κύνθιος, Kunthios, literally " Cynthian "), Cynthogenes ( ; Κύνθογενης, Kunthogenēs, literally " born of Cynthus "), and Delius ( ; Δήλιος, Delios, literally " Delian ").

Apollo was worshipped as Actiacus ( ; Ἄκτιακός, Aktiakos, literally " Actian "), Delphinius ( ; Δελφίνιος, Delphinios, literally " Delphic "), and Pythius ( ; Πύθιος, Puthios, from Πυθώ, Pūthō, the area around Delphi ), after Actium ( Ἄκτιον ) and Delphi ( Δελφοί ) respectively, two of his principal places of worship.

Acesius was the epithet of Apollo worshipped in Elis, where he had a temple in the agora.

A temple was dedicated to Apollo Medicus at Rome, probably next to the temple of Bellona.

As a god of archery, Apollo was known as Aphetor ( ; Ἀφήτωρ, Aphētōr, from ὰφίημι, " to let loose ") or Aphetorus ( ; Ἀφητόρος, Aphētoros, of the same origin ), Argyrotoxus ( ; Ἀργυρότοξος, Argurotoxos, literally " with silver bow "), Hecaërgus ( ; Ἑκάεργος, Hekaergos, literally " far-shooting "), and Hecebolus ( ; Ἑκηβόλος, Hekēbolos, literally " far-shooting ").

Apollo was called Ismenius ( ; Ἰσμηνιός, Ismēnios, literally " of Ismenus ") after Ismenus, the son of Amphion and Niobe, whom he struck with an arrow.

Apollo was worshipped throughout the Roman Empire.

Apollo was worshipped at Mauvières ( Indre ).

This epithet was given to Apollo in parts of Gaul, Northern Italy and Noricum ( part of modern Austria ).

Apollo Belenus was a healing and sun god.

Grannus was a healing spring god, later equated with Apollo.

An epithet for Apollo at Alesia, where he was worshipped as god of healing and, possibly, of physicians.

Apollo Virotutis was worshipped, among other places, at Fins d ' Annecy ( Haute-Savoie ) and at Jublains ( Maine-et-Loire ).

At Delphi, Apollo was venerated as the slayer of Pytho.

For the Greeks, Apollo was all the Gods in one and through the centuries he acquired different functions which could originate from different gods.

The magicians were also called " seer-doctors " ( ιατρομάντεις ), and they used an ecstatic prophetic art which was used exactly by the god Apollo at the oracles.

It was in this way that Apollo had become recognised as the god of music.

Apollo Delphinios was a sea-god especially worshiped in Crete and in the islands, and his name indicates his connection with Delphi and the holy serpent Delphyne ( womb ).

We don't know his original name, but it seems that he was absorbed by the more powerful Apollo, who stood by the " Mistress of the animals ", becoming her brother.

During the third and final lunar excursion of the mission, astronauts Young and Duke were to explore North Ray Crater, the largest of any of the craters any Apollo expedition had visited.

* 1972 – Apollo program: Eugene Cernan is the last person to walk on the moon, after he and Harrison Schmitt complete the third and final Extra-vehicular activity ( EVA ) of the Apollo 17 mission.

* 1972 – Apollo program: Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt begin the third and final Extra-vehicular activity ( EVA ) or " Moonwalk " of Apollo 17.

* 1971 – Apollo program: Apollo 14 returns to Earth after the third manned moon landing.

The characterization of Homer as a blind bard goes back to some verses in the Delian Hymn to Apollo, the third of the Homeric Hymns, verses later cited to support this notion by Thucydides.

The flight rotation put these three in line to fly as prime crew on the third following mission, Apollo 18.

* 1969 – Apollo program: Apollo 12 astronauts Pete Conrad and Alan Bean land at Oceanus Procellarum ( the " Ocean of Storms ") and become the third and fourth humans to walk on the Moon.

* J002E3, probably the third stage of the Apollo 12 Saturn V

On the third mission, an additional Apollo / Saturn IB stood by, ready for launch if needed to rescue the crew in orbit.

The success of Apollo 8 in December 1968, launched on the third flight of a Saturn V, made it likely that one would be available to launch a dry workshop.

** Apollo program: Apollo 12 astronauts Charles Conrad and Alan Bean land at Oceanus Procellarum (" Ocean of Storms "), becoming the third and fourth humans to walk on the Moon.

* December 14 – Apollo program: Eugene Cernan is the last person to walk on the moon, after he and Harrison Schmitt complete the third and final Extra-vehicular activity ( EVA ) of Apollo 17.

* January 31 – Apollo program: Apollo 14 ( carrying astronauts Alan Shepard, Stuart Roosa, and Edgar Mitchell ) lifts off on the third successful lunar landing mission.

** Apollo program: Apollo 14 returns to Earth after the third manned Moon landing.

* During Apollo 13, Apollo 14, Apollo 15, Apollo 16 and Apollo 17, the S-IVB ( the rocket's third stage ) was crashed into the Moon in order to perform seismic measurement used for characterizing the lunar core.