Introduction

Welcome to the revised edition of Apollo by the Numbers, first published in 2001. The purpose of this work is to provide a comprehensive reference for facts about Project Apollo, America’s effort to put humans on the Moon.

For a program of the magnitude of Apollo, numerous NASA centers and contractors created post-mission reports, a situation which created some differences in certain reported measurements. Additionally, as time passed, typographical errors crept into some Apollo-related publications. In order to resolve these issues, the author turned to original documents, some of which were previously unavailable to the public, but were made available through the Freedom of Information Act.

This book is separated into two parts. The first part contains narratives for the Apollo 1 fire and the 11 flown Apollo missions. Included after each narrative is a series of data tables, followed by a comprehensive timeline of events from just before liftoff to just after crew and spacecraft recovery. The second part contains more than 50 tables. These tables organize much of the data from the narratives in one place so they can be compared among all missions. The tables offer additional data as well. The reader can select a specific mission narrative or specific data table by consulting the Table of Contents.

Times for events in this work are expressed mostly as GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) and GET (Ground Elapsed Time). Local U.S. Eastern time, in which all missions were launched, is included only for significant events. In regular usage, GMT does not use a colon between the hours and minutes; however for the convenience of readers of this work, most of whom are in the United States, where time is expressed as “00:00”, the colon is included.

The term “GET” (Ground Elapsed Time), used for manned U.S. spaceflights prior to the Space Shuttle, was referenced to “Range Zero,” the last integral second before liftoff. With the first launch of the Shuttle, NASA began using the term “MET” (Mission Elapsed Time), which begins at the moment of solid rocket booster ignition. The format for GET used here is hhh:mm:ss.sss (hours:minutes:seconds). Example: 208:23:45.343, with “GET” excluded and assumed in order to avoid confusion with GMT.

Some other abbreviations used frequently in this work include:

ALSEP: Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package	B.S.: Bachelor of Science degree	CDR: Commander
CM: Command Module	CMP: Command Module Pilot	CSM: Command and Service Module(s)
EASEP: Early Apollo Surface Experiments Package	GH2: Gaseous Hydrogen	LH2: Liquid Hydrogen
LM: Lunar Module	LMP: Lunar Module Pilot	LOX: Liquid Oxygen
LRV: Lunar Rover Vehicle	M.S.: Master of Science degree	MET: Modular Equipment Transport
NASA: National Aeronautics and Space Administration	Ph.D.: Doctor of Philosophy degree	Sc.D.: Doctor of Science degree
S-IB: Saturn IB launch vehicle	S-IVB: Saturn IV-B launch vehicle	SM: Service Module
SPS: Service Propulsion System

Comments and documented potential corrections may be sent to:

Richard Orloff

Apollo by the Numbers

c/o NASA History Division

NASA Headquarters

Mail Code ZH

Washington, DC 20546

U.S.A.

or emailed to histinfo@hq.nasa.gov.and the information will be forwarded.

Richard W. Orloff

September 2004

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