Descripción general de los programas espaciales Mercury, Gemini y Apollo

Video from the channel King Rose Archives about Apollo program, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 12:28. Language: English. Video type: Documentary.

Documentary overview of the three American crewed programs that led to the Moon, Mercury, Gemini and Apollo, with footage and mission communications.

Mercury, from 1958 to 1963, had to prove that a man could orbit the Earth and return. Alan Shepard flew on May 5, 1961, in Freedom 7, a 15-minute suborbital hop; three weeks later, Kennedy set the goal of reaching the Moon before the decade was out. John Glenn orbited the Earth on February 20, 1962, in Friendship 7, and Gordon Cooper closed out the program with 22 orbits in May 1963. Gemini, with two crew members, served as a bridge: ten missions between March 1965 and November 1966 to rehearse rendezvous, docking and maneuvers. On January 27, 1967, a fire during a test killed Grissom, White and Chaffee, assigned to the first Apollo mission.

Ed White made the first American spacewalk on the second Gemini mission, and Gemini 6 and 7 rendezvoused in orbit. Sixteen months after the fire, a Saturn IB launched Apollo 7. Apollo 8 was the first crewed flight to the vicinity of another celestial body, Apollo 9 made the first docking of the command module with the lunar module, and Apollo 10 performed the dress rehearsal in the lunar environment. Apollo 11 landed on the Moon on July 20, 1969. Apollo 13 survived the explosion of an oxygen tank by using the lunar module as a lifeboat, Apollo 15 debuted the lunar rover, and Apollo 17 collected 243 pounds of samples. In total, twelve Americans walked on the Moon and another fifteen flew to it.