  
| Project Apollo (1965-1973) was the response of the United States to President Kennedy's challenge to place a man on the Moon and return him safely to Earth -- by the end of the decade (1969). Designed to accommodate three astronauts, the Apollo spacecraft consisted of the command/service module (CSM), which remained in orbit around the Moon, and the lunar module (LM), which took two of the astronauts to the Moon's surface and returned them to lunar orbit for rendezvous and docking with the CSM. The launch vehicle necessary to lift the Apollo spacecraft into Earth orbit was the largest and most powerful launch vehicle the United States ever developed -- the Saturn V. Project Apollo consisted of 17 missions all together. The focus of these missions was to test the reliability and ongoing development of the Saturn IB and Saturn V rockets. | z
THE SATURN 1B ROCKET USED FOR APOLLO VII
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