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The Apollo Program was initiated in July 1960, a year earlier than Gemini. At first its prime objective was to fly astronauts around the Moon. Another program including a lunar landing was planned to follow. When President John F. Kennedy declared that an American astronaut would be landing on the surface of the Moon before the end of the decade Apollo shifted its focus. Besides taking men to the Moon the program had two other objectives. The first was to establish the technology to meet other national interests. The second one was to achieve preeminence for the United States in space. Apollo was not just pioneering like Mercury. The constructors also wanted to discover new technologies that could be used for later missions such as skylab.
The Apollo spacecraft consisted of three modules. The command module, the service module and the lunar module. The command module functioned as living quarters for the three-man crew. The cylindrical-shaped service module contained the supplies for the astronauts and the Service Propulsion System engine which was used to maneuver in the lunar orbit.
The lunar module was the first true spacecraft. It was designed for space flights only. Thus, it did not have any aerodynamic qualities. It could separate from the command/service module in the moon orbit taking two astronauts down to the surface.
In order to boost the Apollo vehicles the strongest rockets in history were built. The Saturn V was 110 meters high and fueled it had a total weight of 2.7 million kilograms (!). It was parted in three stages. Each stage was to be disjoined from the rocket after it burnt out. Then the next one would start burning to take the space ship closer to the Moon.
The lunar missions were highly complex and required faster ground operations than Mercury and Gemini since there were now two objects to track in space. The astronauts had to practice hard for their mission. Altogether they spent 84.000 hours, this are nearly 10 man years, on geology field trips, simulations of lunar gravity, and, of course, flying the lunar vehicle.
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