The Apollo missions brought the moon closer to us. Reaching the moon was an unattainable dream until 1969 when a space mission put the first man on the moon. At the time there were many that were skeptical but the creators of the Apollo missions were not. They had been working toward putting a man on the moon for a very long time and worked vigorously until the dream became reality. Although there were small successes and many failures, July 1969, was the crowning moment.

The Early Years

In the early years of the Apollo program rockets were the vehicles to try to succeed in the race to the moon. With every launch, a little more was learnt due to the failures as well as the successes. After the Soviet Union developed the way of actually reaching the moon, NASA speeded up the efforts in the race for space. The success of the Apollo missions helped NASA to grow from the baby stages of rockets to actually putting a man on the moon by use of atomic power. The intention of these missions was for peaceful purposes to gain useful knowledge about the moon and Outer Space in general.

Apollo - The Teen Years

The Apollo program grew out of the imagination of the engineers and others who had the foresight of believing that man could leave the Earth's atmosphere and actually land on the surface of the moon. Due to this, the Apollo missions continued their quest with the support of the people and the government with Apollo growing in its ideas as well as its stature.

Apollo - Coming of Age

On July 20th, 1969 the Apollo dream became a reality when Neil Armstrong took the first step on the moon. Of course the price for this success was marred with failures that preceded this event such as the deaths of many of NASA workers and even some astronauts. Apollo did not end with the landing of man on the moon and other lives would be lost in future Apollo missions.

Just The Beginning

In our quest for space there have been things that have totally amazed us. Before 1969 we didn't believe that that any attempt to land on the moon could ever succeed. Now that we have landed on the moon and even put a spacecraft on Mars, many people think there is nothing more to explore or learn from space and that the space exploration program should end. However, the Apollo program has different ideas -- and who's to say there's nothing interesting or valuable left to discover in the vastness of space?