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{{Image|Apollo 11 image 2.jpg|right|300px|The first manned landing on the moon was successfully accomplished by the Apollo 11 mission on July 20, 1969. Astronaut Neil Armstrong took this photograph of fellow astronaut Edwin ("Buzz") Aldrin walking on the Moon's surface during lunar landing.}}  
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The '''[[Apollo program]]''' was a series of human spaceflight missions undertaken by the United States, during the years 1961–1974, using the Apollo spacecraft and Saturn space launch vehicle. It was conducted by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and was devoted to the goal, expressed in a 1961 address to the U.S. Congress by U.S. President John F. Kennedy, of "... landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth ..." within the decade of the 1960s. That goal was successfully achieved by the Apollo 11 mission in July 1969.
==Footnotes==
 
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The program continued until 1975 with five subsequent Apollo missions which also landed astronauts on the Moon, the last in December 1972. In the six successful Apollo spaceflights, twelve men walked on the Moon. As of 2011, these are the only times that humans have landed on another celestial body.
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Equipment that was originally produced for the Apollo program was used for the later Skylab program during 1973–1974 and the joint U.S.−Soviet mission (Apollo−Soyuz Test Project) in 1975. Therefore, those subsequent programs are thus often considered to be part of the Apollo program.
 
Despite the many successes, there were two major failures, the first of which resulted in the deaths of three astronauts, Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee, in the Apollo 1 launchpad fire. The second was an explosion on Apollo 13, in whose aftermath the deaths of three more astronauts were averted by the efforts of flight controllers, project engineers, and backup crew members.
 
The Apollo program was named after the Greek god of the Sun.
 
==Background==
 
The Apollo program was originally conceived early in 1960, during the administration of U.S. President Eisenhower, as a follow-up to America's Mercury program. While the Mercury capsule could only support one astronaut on a limited Earth orbital mission, the Apollo spacecraft was intended to be able to carry three astronauts on a circumlunar flight and perhaps even on a lunar landing. The program was named after the Greek god of the Sun by NASA manager Abe Silverstein, who later said that "I was naming the spacecraft like I'd name my baby." While NASA went ahead with planning for Apollo, funding for the program was far from certain, particularly given Eisenhower's equivocal attitude to manned spaceflight.
 
[[Apollo program|...]]

Latest revision as of 10:19, 11 September 2020

The Irvin pin. The eyes have always been red, but there are urban legends about the meanings of other colors.
A pin from another company, possibly Switlik or Standard Parachute. This style is common in catalogs and auctions of military memorabilia.

The Caterpillar Club is an informal association of people who have successfully used a parachute to bail out of a disabled aircraft. After authentication by the parachute maker, applicants receive a membership certificate and a distinctive lapel pin.

History

Before April 28, 1919 there was no way for a pilot to jump out of a plane and then to deploy a parachute. Parachutes were stored in a canister attached to the aircraft, and if the plane was spinning, the parachute could not deploy. Film industry stuntman Leslie Irvin developed a parachute that the pilot could deploy at will from a back pack using a ripcord. He joined the Army Air Corps parachute research team, and in April 1919 he successfully tested his design, though he broke his ankle during the test. Irvin was the first person to make a premeditated free fall jump from an airplane. He went on to form the Irving Airchute Company, which became a large supplier of parachutes. (A clerical error resulted in the addition of the "g" to Irvin and this was left in place until 1970, when the company was unified under the title Irvin Industries Incorporated.) The Irvin brand is now a part of Airborne Systems, a company with operations in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K.[1].

An early brochure [2] of the Irvin Parachute Company credits William O'Connor 24 August 1920 at McCook Field near Dayton, Ohio as the first person to be saved by an Irvin parachute, but this feat was unrecognised. On 20 October 1922 Lieutenant Harold R. Harris, chief of the McCook Field Flying Station, jumped from a disabled Loening W-2A monoplane fighter. Shortly after, two reporters from the Dayton Herald, realising that there would be more jumps in future, suggested that a club should be formed. 'Caterpillar Club' was suggested because the parachute canopy was made of silk, and because caterpillars have to climb out of their cocoons and fly away. Harris became the first member, and from that time forward any person who jumped from a disabled aircraft with a parachute became a member of the Caterpillar Club. Other famous members include General James Doolittle, Charles Lindbergh and (retired) astronaut John Glenn.

In 1922 Leslie Irvin agreed to give a gold pin to every person whose life was saved by one of his parachutes. By 1945 the number of members with the Irvin pins had grown to over 34,000. In addition to the Irvin Air Chute Company and its successors, other parachute manufacturers have also issued caterpillar pins for successful jumps. Irvin/Irving's successor, Airborne Systems Canada, still provides pins to people who made their jump long ago and are just now applying for membership. Another of these is Switlik Parachute Company, which though it no longer makes parachutes, still issues pins.

Footnotes

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