The Apollo Spacecraft: Evolution, Engineering, and Flight Operations

by Frank O'Brien

The Apollo Evolution, Engineering, and Flight Operations' is the definitive description of the spacecraft and the technologies used for the journey to the Moon. The spacecraft that eventually landed on the Moon did not spring fully formed because of Kennedy's May 1961 challenge. 'The Apollo Spacecraft' begins by tracing its origins from 1959 when contract bids were already being prepared for a lunar spacecraft. Caught unprepared for a full lunar landing mission, von Braun and other NASA engineers recognized that the spacecraft already under development could never be reconciled with the mission architectures under consideration. Changing the mission architecture and introducing a new spacecraft, the Lunar Module, threw the development of the Apollo CSM into a lurch by requiring significant modifications to the vehicle. The resulting spacecraft, while pushing the limits of the possible, became a complex set of compromises. By tracking the spacecraft's development with its numerous fits and false starts, 'Apollo Spacecrafts' describes how the final mission design and flight operations reflected these early engineering decisions.

320 pages, Paperback

First published November 29, 2014