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APOLLO MISSIONS.
| Dec. 24, 1968 | Apollo 8 carried out LUNAR ORBITAL MISSION. Moon’s surface was photographed and sent back by digital technique. The minimum altitude over Moon was 115 km. |
| May 21, 1969 | Apollo 10 repeated Lunar Orbital Mission but achieved a minimum altitude of 17 km. |
| July 20, 196920 : 17 GMT | Apollo 11 carried out the historic mission of putting Man on Moon. Saturn V rocket launched Apollo Spacecraft on the course to Moon. The crew consisted of Mission Commander, Neil Armstrong, Pilot of the Lunar Module, Eagle, Edwin E. Aldrin, and Command Module Pilot, Michael Collins. Apollo 11 had landed in Sea of Tranquility, a low land. 22 kg mass of Moon rocks and samples brought back. Eagle while trying to land traveled westward overshooting the target by 6 km and 2 km off the track due South. Eagle was supposed to land on smooth patch in the Sea of Tranquility. Instead it landed in a most inhospitable terrain full of boulders. This actual landing site was outside the region that had been chosen for and catered for in ground simulation of landing. This mishap occurred because of sketchy knowledge of Moon’s gravitational field. Mass concentrations or MASCONS cause perilun wiggle which have to be accounted for in trajectory calculation. These MASCONS are either remnants of the asteroids that hit the Moon or dense material from the interior. If these wiggles are not accounted for then trajectory calculation will go hay-wire as it did in the case of Eagle’s landing. |
| Nov. 18, 1969 | Apollo 12 landed in Oceanus Procellarum (the ocean of storms). Sample of Mare Basin was brought back. The participants were Pete Conrad and Allen Bean. The landing site was 200 meters from the landing site of Surveyor 3 probe. Apollo 12 landed exactly on target. |
| Apollo 13 mission got aborted and had to come back to Earth. | |
| Feb. 2, 1971 | Apollo 14 landed on Fra Mauro (ejecta from Imburin Basin). Samples of ejecta from Imburin Basin were brought back. Situ Rossa piloted the Command Module and Alan Shepard and Ed Mitchell explored Fra Mauro highlands. |
| July 30, 1971 | Apollo 15, landed at the edge of Mare basin. In this Mission, Lunar Buggy, a roving vehicle, was used. Samples of material from Apennine Mountains, the rim of Imburin Basin, was brought back. Apennine mountains are Moon’s primordial crust. Samples of Mare rocks and dust were brought back. Imburin Basin is the great canyon on Moon. David Scott and Jim Irwin spent three days on Moon. In these three days thrice they drove their Lunar Buggy and explored Moon’s surface for seven hours in each drive/ |
| April 20, 1972 | Apollo 16 landed on Lunar uplands near crater Descrates. Samples of highland brought back. |
| Dec. 11, 1972 | Apollo 17, landed on Taurus mountains. Samples of a region suspected of recent volcanism was brought back. Rim Evans piloted the Command Module. Gene Cornan and geologist Jack Schmitt did 3 days of prospecting in Taurus Littrow Valley. |
| In all 24 men participated in Apollo Mission and 12 men, amongst these, set foot on Moon. |
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