Innovation the NASA Way

Lunar Landing

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy announced to the world that America had set the goal of landing a man on the moon by the end of the decade. The moon mission became the primary task of the National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA). By the late 1960s, the Apollo program, which the space agency organized to achieve this spectacular target, proved exceptionally active. Apollo enjoyed numerous innovative technological triumphs, but suffered serious setbacks. The devastating Apollo 1 fire killed astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee.

Legendary astronaut Frank Borman directed an Apollo capsule redesign, and he was set to become the lead astronaut on the Apollo 8 crew that one day would set out to orbit the moon. In 1967, Borman and other NASA professionals learned – to their displeasure – that even though the Soviet space program could not muster a manned lunar landing, it could send a Soyuz spacecraft into manned orbit around the moon. Kennedy’s goal for the US meant getting to the moon with a manned spacecraft ahead of Russia. A Soyuz “looping lunar flyby” before the American lunar landing would...