Adrift on the Sea of Rains (Apollo Quartet) (8 page)

Apollo 9
The first Apollo mission with a Lunar Module, and so tasked with testing rendezvous and docking procedures between the two spacecraft in LEO. Crew: James McDivitt (CDR), Russell ‘Rusty’ Schweickart (LMP) and David Scott (CMP). Callsigns: Command Module
Gumdrop
(CM-104), Lunar Module
Spider
(LM-3). Launched 3 March 1969.

Apollo 10
A “dry run” mission for the first lunar landing, Apollo 10 flew to the Moon and its Lunar Module descended to within ten miles of the lunar surface but did not land. Crew: Thomas P Stafford (CDR), Eugene Cernan (LMP) and John Young (CMP). Callsigns: Command Module
Charlie Brown
(CM-106), Lunar Module
Snoopy
(LM-4). Launched 18 May 1969.

Apollo 11
The third lunar mission and the first to land on the Moon, at Mare Tranquillitatis. Crew: Neil A Armstrong (CDR), Edwin E ‘Buzz’ Aldrin (LMP) and Michael Collins (CMP). Callsigns: Command Module
Columbia
(CM-107), Lunar Module
Eagle
(LM-5). Launched 16 July 1969, landed on Moon 20 July 1969. Duration on lunar surface 21h 36m 40s.

Apollo 12
The second lunar mission to land on the Moon, at Oceanus Procellarum. Crew: Charles ‘Pete’ Conrad (CDR), Alan L Bean (LMP) and Richard F Gordon (CMP). Callsigns: Command Module
Yankee Clipper
(CM-108), Lunar Module
Intrepid
(LM-6). Launched 14 November 1969, landed on Moon 19 November 1969. Duration on lunar surface 31h 31m 12s.

Apollo 13
This mission failed to complete after an explosion in an oxygen tank in the Service Module. The Lunar Module was successfully used as a lifeboat, and returned the crew to Earth. Crew: James A Lovell (CDR), Fred W Haise (LMP) and John ‘Jack’ Swigert (CMP). Callsigns: Command Module
Odyssey
(CM-109), Lunar Module
Aquarius
(LM-7). Launched 11 April 1970.

Apollo 14
The third lunar landing, at Fra Mauro. Crew: Alan B Shepard (CDR), Edgar Mitchell (LMP) and Stuart A Roosa (CMP). Callsigns: Command Module
Kitty Hawk
(CM-110), Lunar Module
Antares
(LM-8). Launched 31 January 1971, landed on Moon 5 February 1971. Duration on lunar surface 33h 30m 29s.

Apollo 15
The fourth lunar landing, and the first of the J-Class missions, which featured use of a LRV. It landed at Rima Hadley on Mare Imbrium. Crew: David Scott (CDR), James B Irwin (LMP) and Alfred M Worden (CMP). Callsigns: Command Module
Endeavour
(CM-112), Lunar Module
Falcon
(LM-10). Launched 26 July 1971, landed on Moon 30 July 1971. Duration on lunar surface 66h 54m 53s.

Apollo 16
The second J-Class mission to land on the Moon, in the Descartes Highlands. Crew: John Young (CDR), Charles Duke (LMP) and T Kenneth Mattingly (CMP). Callsigns: Command Module
Casper
(CM-113), Lunar Module
Orion
(LM-11). Launched 16 April 1972, landed on Moon 21 April 1972. Duration on lunar surface 71h 2m 13s.

Apollo 17
The third J-Class mission to land on the Moon, at Taurus-Littrow. Crew: Eugene Cernan (CDR), Harrison ‘Jack’ Schmitt (LMP) and Ronald E Evans (CMP). Callsigns: Command Module
America
(CM-114), Lunar Module
Challenger
(LM-12). Launched 7 December 1972, landed on Moon 11 December 1972. Duration on lunar surface 75h 59m 40s.

Apollo 18
The fourth J-Class mission to land on the Moon, at Copernicus. Crew: Richard F Gordon (CDR), Joe Engle (LMP) and Vance D Brand (CMP). Callsigns: Command Module
Discovery
(CM-116), Lunar Module
Atlantis
(LM-13). Launched 16 July 1973, landed on Moon 21 July 1973. Duration on lunar surface 74h 36m 15s.

Apollo 19
The fifth J-Class mission to land on the Moon, at Hyginus Rille. Crew: Fred W Haise (CDR), Gerald P Carr (LMP) and William R Pogue (CMP). Callsigns: Command Module
Galileo
(CM-117), Lunar Module
Magellan
(LM-14). Launched 14 December 1973, landed on Moon 18 December 1973. Duration on lunar surface 77h 36m 21s.

Apollo 20
The sixth and final J-Class mission to land on the Moon, at Tycho. Crew: Stuart A Roosa (CDR), Jack R Lousma (LMP) and Paul J Weitz (CMP). Callsigns: Command Module
Conestoga
(CM-118), Lunar Module
Centaurus
(LM-15). Launched 14 April 1974, landed on Moon 19 April 1974. Duration on lunar surface 78h 18m 34s.

Apollo 21A/B
After the successful completion of Apollo 20’s visit to Tycho in April 1974, NASA instituted its programme of Apollo Extensions Series missions, intended to further explore the Moon and lead towards an eventual mission to Mars in the early 1980s. Each AES mission was supported by two launches. The first, A, launched an automated LM Taxi to the Moon, an augmented LM which contained sufficient supplies for a two-week stay. A week later, B, carrying the crew and LM, followed. Apollo 21A/B landed at Censorinus crater, the planned destination of Apollo 15 until Apollo 13’s failure. Crew: Charles ‘Pete’ Conrad (CDR), Edward Gibson (LMP) and Joseph P Kerwin (CMP). Callsigns: Command Module
Shenandoah
(CM-119), Lunar Module
Whope
(LM-16), LM Taxi no callsign (LMT-1). B launched 15 July 1975, landed on Moon 20 July 1975. Duration on lunar surface 281h 46m 11s.

Apollo 22A/B
The second AES mission to the Moon, landing on the dark side at Tsiolkovskiy Crater. Crew: Al Worden (CDR), Don L Lind (LMP) and Bruce McCandless (CMP). Callsigns: Command Module
Lewis
(CM-120), Lunar Module
Clark
(LM-17), LM Taxi no callsign (LMT-2). B launched 3 December 1975, landed on Moon 7 December 1975. Duration on lunar surface 283h 16m 9s.

Apollo 23A/B
An upgrade of the LM Taxi allowed a surface stay of up to 28 days for two astronauts, and so, following a plan originally laid in 1967, the AES programme segued into the Apollo Logistics Support Systems series of missions. Apollo 23 landed in the Marius Hills. Crew: Russell ‘Rusty’ Schweickart (CDR), Owen Garriott (LMP) and Joseph P Allen (CMP). Callsigns: Command Module
Checker
(CM-121), Lunar Module
Lonesome
(LM-18), LM Taxi no callsign (LMT-5). B launched 4 September 1976, landed on Moon 7 September 1976. Duration on lunar surface 684h 3m 17s.

Apollo 24A/B
The second ALSS mission, which landed at Schröter’s Valley. The scientist-astronauts had now taken over the Apollo programme, and though some military astronauts remained in command positions most had transferred across to the military’s own astronaut corps or retired. Unfortunately, the focus on science only exacerbated dwindling public interest in the programme, and by the time the astronauts returned only one more planned Moon mission was left and all remaining hardware had been transferred to the Space Station Freedom project. Crew: Ronald E Evans (CDR), F Story Musgrave (LMP) and Robert L Crippen (CMP). Callsigns: Command Module
Ticonderoga
(CM-121), Lunar Module
Soarer
(LM-18), LM Taxi no callsign (LMT-5). B launched 24 November 1977, landed on Moon 28 November 1977. Duration on lunar surface 689h 43m 31s.

Apollo 25A/B
The third ALSS mission and the final civilian Apollo mission to the Moon, which landed at Aristarchus crater. It had been intended that the ALSS missions would lead to Lunar Exploration System Apollo, LESA, missions capable of up to 90 days stay on the lunar surface. Continued lack of public interest and subsequent budget cuts, however, brought the programme to a close. Although the Apollo missions put twenty-eight men on the Moon - no women ever qualified as astronauts until the 1980s - without a single death or injury, concerns closer to home eventually took precedence. The first modules for Space Station Freedom were boosted into Low Earth Orbit, with military involvement contributing to the cost of the Saturn launch vehicles, and the planned mission to Mars was quietly shelved. By the end of the decade, the US’s civilian space presence was confined to LEO and unlikely to travel further. Crew: Jack R Lousma (CDR), Brian O’Leary (LMP) and Robert Parker (CMP). Callsigns: Command Module
Goddard
(CM-121), Lunar Module
Tombaugh
(LM-18), LM Taxi no callsign (LMT-5). B launched 4 July 1979, landed on Moon 7 July 1979. Duration on lunar surface 687h 51m 42s.

Augmented Lunar Module
A development of the Grumman Lunar Module, used exclusively by the Phoebus programme, which could carry four men to and from the lunar surface. The ALM was not designed for a lunar stay and carried only sufficient consumables for the journey to and from lunar orbit.

The Bell
Discovered in an underground facility in Nazi Germany, near Wenceslaus in Silesia, and transported secretly to the US after the end of WWII, it was many years before American scientists determined its actual function. The Bell was nine feet in diameter and twelve feet high, and constructed of metal and ceramics. Within it, two beryllium peroxide cylinders were suspended in a bath of a violet mercury-like substance known as “Xerum-525”. The two cylinders were spun at tens of thousands of revolutions per second, and thorium ions at high voltage were then fired into the vortex they generated. The precise nature of “Xerum-525” remained a mystery, as did the nature of the effect generated by the Bell. After inconclusive experiments had been performed on it at Los Alamos, the Bell was moved to Montauk, where it remained for several decades.

Convair F-106 Delta Dart
An all-weather missile-armed interceptor aircraft operated by USAF between 1959 and 1988. Until 1981, it remained the primary interceptor and served both at continental US air bases and abroad in Europe and South Korea. It was powered by a single Pratt & Whitney J75-17 turbojet, and could reach a maximum speed of Mach 2.3.

Falcon Base
After no more than a year of operation, the Pentagon deemed the Sentinel modules attached to Space Station Freedom too vulnerable to attack by the Soviets. Yet they were still determined to control the high ground of space. As a result, they turned to 1950s Army Ballistic Missile Agency studies for a planned base on the Moon. Eventually adopting a modified plan drawn up by NASA during the 1970s, in early 1983 USAF began adopting modules destined for Space Station Freedom so they could be used on the lunar surface. A number of locations were considered, but one necessity limited the Pentagon’s choices: the moon base had to be located at a site that had been mapped by astronauts. After much study, Apollo 15’s landing site was chosen, as Rima Hadley, a nearby trench system, provided a ready-made place in which the moon base could be buried. As a result, the base was named for the Apollo 15 lunar module,
Falcon
. Five modules for Space Station Freedom were modified for Falcon Base, and launched from Vandenberg in early 1984. A secret military manned mission followed two weeks later and, using a LRV similar to that carried by the ALSS missions, the modules were dragged from the LM Trucks which had carried them to the Moon into Rima Hadley, mated together and then part-buried. A series of supply missions, again landed on the lunar surface using LM Trucks, provided the SP-100 nuclear reactor and the oxygen, food and other consumables necessary for the base to function. The four astronauts who had built Falcon Base moved in and became its first crew. They were joined by a further eight members of the astronaut corps, and a rolling schedule of six months duty implemented.