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Frontiers July 2016 Issue

92 Mercury, Gemini and Apollo These three spacecraft built by Boeing heritage companies answered President John F. Kennedy’s challenge to the country to land U.S. astronauts on the moon before the end of the 1960s. On Feb. 20, 1962, John Glenn became the first American to orbit Earth, in a Mercury capsule built by McDonnell. The two-person Gemini spacecraft, also built by McDonnell, followed. North American built the three-person Apollo spacecraft used for the actual missions to the moon and back. Meanwhile, Boeing, North American and McDonnell Douglas built all three stages of the Saturn V rocket, which was 363 feet (111 meters) long and hurled the Apollo spacecraft into orbit and toward the moon. And Boeing built the Lunar Rover that carried astronauts across the moon’s surface, vastly increasing the amount of area they could explore. •


Frontiers July 2016 Issue
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