In May 1962 the LM entered lunar orbit for the first time In March 1969, the first crewed mission of the LM took place In his horse-drawn golden chariot, Apollo pulled the sun in its course across the sky each day ![]() NASA chose the name Apollo, because of the tradition of naming missions after Greek gods begun during the Mercury missionsĪpollo was the god of archery, prophecy, poetry, and music, and most significantly he was god of the sun. The LM was used during the Apollo missions taking the first humans to the moon and back The simulator is currently in the Cradle of Aviation Museum Only one was built and it survived to this day The LM simulator had an early virtual reality function to help simulate landing on the moonĪstronauts would sleep overnight inside it to prepare for three-day stays on the Moon The simulator operated at the Kennedy Space Center between 19 and was used by every Apollo astronaut to train for landing on the Moon prior to their mission Grumman built a Lunar Module Simulator to train astronauts for lunar landings The LM was never flight tested because the lunar environment couldn’t be replicated, according to the Cradle of Aviation Museum Its function was to support two astronauts on the moon and returned them to the CSM in lunar orbit It was built of extremely light thin metal to conserve fuel while looking for a safe lunar landing spot during its mission No aerodynamic design was needed for the LM as it was intended to perform its mission strictly in the vacuum of space, making it the first true spacecraft The LM was designed as a two-stage vehicle for space operations near and on the Moonīoth stages were covered with gold, silver and black thermal shielding which gave the spacecraft a fragile appearance, according to the Cradle of Aviation Museum The LM carried two crewmen to the lunar surface (while one stayed in orbit in the Command and Service Module aka CSM) He wrote a book about it called “Moon Lander: How We Developed the Apollo Lunar Module” ![]() And that’s something that thousands of Grummanites take great pride in." with a ‘Made in Bethpage, New York’ nameplate on them. Kelly is quoted as saying, “Remember, there are six descent stages today sitting on the moon. Kelly was called the ''father of the lunar module'' by NASA Kelly is credited as the Grumman engineer who led the team that designed and built the LM Later Apollo flights carried a lunar roving vehicle (LRV), aka "Rover" to provide greater mobility for the astronauts while on the surface of the moon The name was shortened to Lunar Module and abbreviated LM but was still referred to as “Lem” It was renamed because the word "excursion" implied mobility on the moon and the vehicle did not have that capability ![]() The vehicle is now officially known as the Lunar ModuleĪccording to a NASA history document, the lunar module was called "lunar excursion module (LEM)" until 1966 Grumman Aircraft was awarded the contract on November 7, 1962Īll Lunar Modules were built on Long Island by Long Islanders The proposal process was described by then vice president of Grumman Joseph G. In 1962, NASA invited 11 companies to submit proposals for a lunar excursion module See some historic pics of the Linar Lander here.īelow we present crazy and historical facts about the Grumman Lunar Module. It was known as the Lunar Module (affectionately called the “Lem.”) ![]() Grumman was tasked with creating the vehicle that would take astronauts from the orbiting command module to the surface of the moon and back. (Read about five times Long Island made aviation history in our article here. Long Island is steeped in aerospace history and no accomplishment can rival the feat of rocketing humans to a heavenly body and back. The vehicle that carried us there was designed and built by Long Island-based Grumman Aerospace Corporation. "I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before the decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth," he said. Kennedy promised we would put men on the moon by the end of the 1960s. During the Cold War, Russian launched the first artificial satellite called “Sputnik” and supercharged the space race.
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