55 years ago – on July 16, 1969 – the three-member crew of the Apollo 11 mission took off from the American Cape Canaveral aboard a Saturn V rocket. It took 102 hours, 45 minutes and 42 seconds for the lunar module Eagle to land on the surface of the moon on July 20, 1969.
16.07.2024 16:00
However, the story of the first man on the moon began to be written several decades earlier – in the 1930s in Nazi Germany. The main engine of American success was the German rocket designer Wernher von Braun, who during World War II at the Peenemünde research center participated in the development of the V2 rocket, the first long-range guided ballistic missile. Von Braun, along with many other Nazi scientists and completed V2 rockets, made their way to the US after the war as part of Operation Paperclip. There, he continued to develop rocket technology for the American government, which helped the Americans on their way to the moon in the very end of the 1960s.
On July 16, 1969, the three-member crew of the Apollo 11 mission took off from the American Cape Canaveral aboard a Saturn V rocket. It took 102 hours, 45 minutes and 42 seconds for the lunar module Eagle to land on the surface of the moon on July 20, 1969.
However, the beginnings were not easy at all, and many space firsts were won by the Soviet Union – the first artificial satellite in space (October 4, 1957 – Sputnik 1), the first living creature in space (November 3, 1957 – female Lajka, Sputnik 2), the first human (15 April 1961 – Yuri Gagarin, Vostok 1) and the first woman (June 16, 1963 – Valentina Tereshkova, Vostok 6) in space. The United States was particularly shocked by the Sputnik 1 and Sputnik 2 missions launched shortly after each other and caused panic among the American population.
The Americans attempted to respond to the Soviet successes by launching the Vanguard 1 satellite on March 17, 1958. However, the rocket rose only a few meters above the launch pad and exploded, earning it the derisive nickname Kaputnik.
The American government was very well aware of the significant lag behind the Soviet Union, so in 1958, in an effort to increase the efficiency of space research, it founded the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which took over the function of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) and later absorbed several other institutions including the Army Ballistic Missile Agency, whose technical director was Wernher von Braun.
The creation of a new agency brought its fruit in the form of successful missions, but a new goal also came – a trip to the moon. American President John F. Kennedy proposed it to Congress on May 25, 1961. However, he did not live to see it implemented in 1969 – on November 22, 1963, he was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, USA.
The super-heavy American multi-stage launch vehicle Saturn V, powered by liquid rocket fuel, played a significant role in the realization of Kennedy’s dream. NASA used it in the Apollo and Skylab programs. It was designed and developed by Wernher von Braun’s team at the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) and has roots dating back to the V2 rockets.
Saturn V consisted of three stages. The first stage of the S-IC was 42 meters high and ten meters in diameter, its task was to carry a massive rocket high into the atmosphere. It was served by five Rocketdyne F-1 engines placed in a cross. The central engine was mounted firmly, the remaining four were hydraulically deflected, thereby controlling the direction of flight.
The S-II second stage was powered by five Rocketdyne J-2 engines, but they were not as powerful as the first stage engines. After full refueling, the fuel accounted for up to 97 percent of the weight of the stage. The tanks for rocket fuel and oxidizer were separated from each other by a partition, which also isolated the temperature difference of 70 degrees Celsius between the contents of both tanks – rocket fuel and oxidizer. For this, the designers used aluminum plates separated by plastic from phenolic resin.
The S-IVB third stage had only one J-2 engine and also used a phenolic bulkhead. It was the only one small enough to be transported by plane.
Saturn V rockets from a total of 12 flights recorded only one partial failure, the remaining 11 were successful. One of the successful missions was the Apollo 11 mission with a crew of three. It was commanded by Neil Armstrong, the lunar module pilot was Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin Jr., the command module pilot was Michael Collins. Armstrong and Aldrin went to the surface of the moon, Collins remained in orbit.
“That’s one small step for a man, but one giant leap for mankind,” Armstrong declared when he became the first person in history to step onto the surface of another space body. The Eagle lunar module landed in an area called the Sea of Tranquility. Astronauts spent 21 hours and 36 minutes on the surface of the moon, which they spent exploring it and collecting approximately 21.5 kilograms of samples. The Lunar Module subsequently rejoined the Columbia Command Module and the astronauts returned to Earth. After spending more than eight days in space, the module fell into the Pacific Ocean, from where it was retrieved by ships of the US Navy.
The success of the Apollo 11 mission opened the door to another manned mission to the moon. Six more took place, although up to nine were originally planned. So far, the last person on the surface of the moon was Apollo 17 astronaut Eugene Cernan, whose grandparents came from the Slovak village of Vysoká nad Kysucou.
Source: vat.pravda.sk
