Apollo 11 was launched by a Saturn V rocket from the Kennedy Space Centre in Merrit Island Florida. This happened on the 16th of July 1969. Apollo 11 was the 5th mission of NASAs Apollo programme where astronauts were on the space …show more content…
It took 8 years to plan and action. The objective was the scientific exploration of the lunar module. They wanted to deploy a tv camera to transmit signals to earth. They also deployed a solar wind composition experiment. The 2 astronauts were told to gather lunar surface materials and bring them back to earth. They also had to photograph the lunar terrain.This was the last Apollo mission to fly a "free return trajectory " . This meant that they could return to earth with no engines …show more content…
The scientific legacy of the Apollo programme has been profound and gave us a new understanding of the universe.
The were follow ups after the mission. There were nine more landing missions that were planned after Apollo 11 but the last 3 Apollo 18, 19 and 20 were all cancelled. These were landings for apollo missions after Apollo 11 :
12- Ocean of Storms
13- Fra Mauro Highlands
14- Littrow crater
15- Censorinus crater
16- Descartes highlands
17- Marius hills
The small rock fragments that were collected by the astronauts are still being analysed today. In an article by Susan Killenberg McGinn she talks about a lunar geochemist at Washington University in St Louis who says " there are still many answers to be obtained from the moon rocks collected by the Apollo 11 astronauts on their historic moonwalk 40 years ago."
Apollo 11 turned space into an area of active competition for political and military advantage. Only in the late 1980s did the more friendly relations between the U.S. And the Soviet Union allow for major space co operation to develop. Both countries began to seriously pursue strategic partnerships in