| John Houbolt, an engineer at NASA's Langley facility, saw an easier way: lunar-orbit rendezvous. In his plan, two smaller spacecraft would fly together to the Moon and then go into lunar orbit. Once there, a spacecraft designed specifically for the lunar landing would descend to the Moon's surface, land, and return the crew and samples back to the awaiting mothership. The mothership alone would return to Earth. Because the spacecraft was always leaving behind what it no longer needed, it was smaller and required less fuel. In fact, an entire lunar voyage could be accomplished in just one launch of the Saturn V--a fantastic benefit over the earth-orbit rendezvous concept. |
1 Diagram of flight techniques considered for Apollo program. 83k jpg 2 John Houlbort presents LOV concept, 1962. 52k jpg Photo credits: NASA |
