Apollo 18

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Apollo 18 is the name for a scheduled flight to the moon during the Apollo program of NASA . The flight was canceled in September 1970.

Schedule and landing site

Shortly after the successful moon landing of Apollo 11 , NASA announced the further program on July 29, 1969 . Accordingly, Apollo 18 was scheduled for February 1972 and should land near the Tycho crater . This lunar region was scientifically attractive, but difficult to reach because it is very far from the lunar equator (43 ° south latitude).

During a rescheduling in October 1969, this landing site was therefore postponed to the then latest planned mission, Apollo 20 . The Copernicus crater was selected for Apollo 18 , with the Davy flute as a replacement landing site.

Planned occupation

On March 26, 1970, the Apollo 15 crew was announced. Since the replacement team usually formed the main team three flights later, Richard Gordon , Vance Brand and Jack Schmitt had legitimate hopes of being nominated for Apollo 18.

The cancellation

On September 2, 1970, between the flights of Apollo 13 and Apollo 14 , NASA announced at a press conference that two Apollo flights would be canceled. According to the planning, these were the missions Apollo 15 and Apollo 19, but the remaining missions were renumbered so that Apollo 17 should now be the end point, since the Apollo 20 flight was canceled in January 1970 .

Gordon and Brand did not get a chance, Schmitt, the only scientist among the nominated astronauts, was brought forward for the Apollo 17 mission in August 1971 under pressure from NASA scientists.

Aircraft

The production of the planned Saturn V rocket SA-514 was started but never finished. Although the flight had already been canceled, parts of the rocket were later delivered to the Kennedy Space Center : the second stage on October 6, 1970, the third stage on March 28, 1973. These two stages are part of the Saturn V on display there. The first stage the rocket is now part of the other exhibit in front of the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston .

The intended lunar module LM-12 was used for Apollo 17.

At the time of cancellation, several Apollo spaceships were under construction. While the preparations for Apollo 14 (with the spacecraft CSM-110) were already in full swing, later missions could be rescheduled. Apollo 15 should now perform a moon flight with an expanded scientific profile. For this reason, the three last flights to the moon were assigned the further developed spaceships CSM-112 to CSM-114, so that the CSM-114 originally intended for Apollo 18 now flew with Apollo 17.

Movie

On October 13, 2011, the film Apollo 18 was released, which tells the fictional story of an Apollo 18 mission that took place in secret. There is also another Apollo mission in the film Moontrap (1989).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ NASA reaches its outer limit latimes.com, accessed September 21, 2011