Apollo Lunar Module
The Apollo Lunar Module (LM /ˈlɛm/), originally designated the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM), was the lunar lander spacecraft that was flown between lunar orbit and the Moon's surface during the United States' Apollo program. It was the first crewed spacecraft to operate exclusively in the airless vacuum of space, and remains the only crewed vehicle to land anywhere beyond Earth.
Manufacturer
United States
Crewed lunar landing
- 33,500 lb (15,200 kg) standard
- 36,200 lb (16,400 kg) extended
- 9,430 lb (4,280 kg) standard
- 10,850 lb (4,920 kg) extended
2
235 cu ft (6.7 m3)
28 V DC, 115 V 400 Hz AC
Six or seven 28–32-volt, 296 ampere hour silver-zinc
75 hours (extended)
23 ft 1 in (7.04 m)
13 ft 10 in (4.22 m) without landing gear
31 ft (9.4 m), landing gear deployed
Retired
15
10
10
1972
0
0
January 22, 1968
December 7, 1972
December 14, 1972
Structurally and aerodynamically incapable of flight through Earth's atmosphere, the two-stage lunar module was ferried to lunar orbit attached to the Apollo command and service module (CSM), about twice its mass. Its crew of two flew the complete lunar module from lunar orbit to the Moon's surface. During takeoff, the spent descent stage was used as a launch pad for the ascent stage which then flew back to the command module, after which it was also discarded.
Overseen by Grumman, the LM's development was plagued with problems that delayed its first uncrewed flight by about ten months and its first crewed flight by about three months. Still, the LM became the most reliable component of the Apollo–Saturn space vehicle.[1] The total cost of the LM for development and the units produced was $21.65 billion in 2016 dollars, adjusting from a nominal total of $2.29 billion[2] using the NASA New Start Inflation Indices.[3]
Ten lunar modules were launched into space. Of these, six were landed by humans on the Moon from 1969 to 1972. The first two flown were tests in low Earth orbit: Apollo 5, without a crew; and Apollo 9 with a crew. A third test flight in low lunar orbit was Apollo 10, a dress rehearsal for the first landing, conducted on Apollo 11. The Apollo 13 lunar module functioned as a lifeboat to provide life support and propulsion to keep the crew alive for the trip home, when their CSM was disabled by an oxygen tank explosion en route to the Moon.
The six landed descent stages remain at their landing sites; their corresponding ascent stages crashed into the Moon following use. One ascent stage (Apollo 10's Snoopy) was discarded in a heliocentric orbit after its descent stage was discarded in lunar orbit. The other three LMs were burned up in the Earth's atmosphere: the four stages of Apollo 5 and Apollo 9 each re-entered separately, while Apollo 13's Aquarius re-entered as a unit.
Depiction in film and television[edit]
The 1995 Ron Howard film Apollo 13, a dramatization of that mission starring Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, and Bill Paxton, was filmed using realistic spacecraft interior reconstructions of the Aquarius and the Command Module Odyssey. In 2013 in the television show Arrested Development, a fictionalized version of Howard is depicted as having the Apollo 11 "LEM" in his office, which his character claims was used to fake the 1969 moon landing.
The development and construction of the lunar module is dramatized in the 1998 miniseries From the Earth to the Moon episode entitled "Spider". This is in reference to LM-3, used on Apollo 9, which the crew named Spider after its spidery appearance. The unused LM-13 stood in during the teleplay to depict LM-3 and LM-5, Eagle, used by Apollo 11.
The Apollo 11 Lunar Module Eagle is depicted in the 2018 film First Man, a biopic of Neil Armstrong.