Apollo spacecraft feasibility study

One week after the presentation of the contractors' designs, President John F. Kennedy committed NASA to a crewed lunar landing, giving the Apollo program an immediate, critical focus.

[2][3] In July and August 1960, NASA's Space Task Group (STG) hosted a series of NASA-industry conferences to discuss post-Project Mercury crewed spacecraft plans.

"[5] On August 30, NASA presented plans to award three feasibility study contracts for the Apollo spacecraft, conceived as a three-man Earth orbital and circumlunar craft, with growth potential for crewed lunar landings.

Convair selected a lifting body for the return vehicle (command module), similar to one conceived several years earlier by Alfred J. Eggers of NASA-Ames.

The entire craft was 33.4 feet (10.2 m) long, with one innovation: a cocoonlike wrapping for secondary pressure protection in case of cabin leaks or meteoroid puncture.

[9] The Martin Company spent about $3 million, employing almost 300 persons for the better part of the six-month term, to produce the most elaborate study of the three, not only following all the Space Task Group guidelines, but also going far beyond in systems analysis.

When Martin later entered the Apollo hardware procurement contract competition, NASA scored them highest of all the entrants on configuration design.

Tradeoffs between weight and propulsion requirements led to the selection of a pressurized shell of semimonocoque aluminum alloy coated with a composite heatshield of superalloy with a charring ablator.

Flaps for limited maneuverability on reentry, a parachute landing system, and a jettisonable mission module that could also serve as a solar storm cellar, a laboratory, or even the descent stage for a lunar lander, were also featured.

On May 25, one week after presentation of the study results, President John F. Kennedy proposed the Moon landing objective to the US Congress, giving the Apollo program a clear focus and sense of urgency.

In the summer of 1962, the selection of the LOR proposal from NASA's Langley Research Center,[15] plus several technical obstacles encountered in some subsystems (such as environmental control), soon made it clear that substantial redesign would be required.

"We use to read carefully the U.S. literature by the leading astrodynamicists - Ferri, Chapman, Van Driest, Lees, and the top Russians - Sibulkin, Koropkin".

Robert R. Gilruth (second from left), Director of NASA's Space Task Group , and chief assistants Charles Donlan left), Maxime Faget , and Robert Piland in August 1960 discuss selection of contractors to study feasibility of a crewed circumlunar mission
An early Apollo Program plan, involving a proposal like the Project Olympus for an Earth orbital laboratory station. [ 7 ]
Model of General Dynamics Corporation's proposed Apollo circumlunar mission design
Cross section of the GE D-2 submission, showing complete spacecraft and descent module
Employees of the Martin Company display models of their top three command module designs, and proposal materials
President Kennedy proposes a crewed lunar landing program to Congress
The Soyuz TMA spacecraft uses a separate orbital (mission) module in front of a descent module shaped similarly to that of the GE D-2.