This is part of a series of episodes on NASA’s Mission to the Moon.

To Moon and Back - Part 1

To Moon and Back - Part 2

To Moon and Back - Part 3

To Moon and Back - Part 4

To Moon and Back - Part 5

{01:30} There are missions that happened before Apollo 11. All these missions had mission objectives that were testing ground for the Apollo 11.

{02:10} Apollo 1 was supposed to be the first manned flight of Apollo Spacecraft. But the astronauts Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Edward “Ed” White and Roger Chaffee died in a fire that broke out in the Command Module during a ground testing.

{04:52} Between Apollo 1 and Apollo 7 which were manned missions, there were a bunch of unmanned missions testing Command Module, Lunar Module and Trans Lunar Ejection.

{06:08} Apollo 7: This was the first manned mission after Apollo 1. The mission was mainly designed to test the CSM and long duration flight in Apollo Spacecraft. Due to a head cold, commander Walter M Schirra was irritable throughout the mission and this led to the crew disobeying the mission control.

{11:54} Apollo 8: First manned mission to leave Earth and orbit another celestial body. During the six day mission, Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and William Anders orbited the Moon and were the first humans to see the far side of the Moon. Frank Borman fell sick during this mission.

{15:16} Apollo 9: A low earth orbit mission, astronauts spent around 10 days orbiting the earth and tested the LEM in earth’s orbit. LEM was tested by flying out around 100km away from the CSM.

{16:56} Apollo 10: Full dress rehearsal for Apollo 11 mission. Astronauts practised orbiting the moon, tested the LEM by taking it down 15km above the moon’s surface.

Music: Free Stock Music

Image: Pixabay