The Eagle's landing is history

Diane Kaylor
ASME Public Information

As Sputnik celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, ASME will recognize an aerospace landmark that the resulting space race engendered — the Apollo lunar module (LM).
One of the lunar modules that was prepared for launch but never sent is on display at the recently reopened Cradle of Aviation Museum in Garden City, N.Y.

Next month, ASME will designate the Lunar Module No. 13 a Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark, with ASME Past President John R. Parker presenting a bronze plaque.

Two other unfired modules are preserved in museum settings: No. 2 is at the Smithsonian Institution and No. 15 is at the Kennedy Space Center. But, No. 13 is made special by being near its birthplace at Northrop Grumman. Grumman's facility in Bethpage, N.Y., is where the lunar modules that would orbit the moon attached to command and service modules were designed and produced.

The LM's main functions were to carry two astronauts from lunar orbit to the moon's surface and then return them to lunar orbit to rendezvous and dock with the Apollo command-service modules for the return trip to Earth.

ASME will designate Apollo Lunar Module No. 13 a Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark next month.

 

 

On the lunar surface, the LM served as a shelter and base of operations as the astronauts carried out their exploration and experiments. The module design was economical because each could be designed for specialized functions of exploration and reentry operations.

Grumman won the bid with its design, and the first lunar landing — of a module called "The Eagle" — occurred on July 20, 1969, and gave birth to the expression "The Eagle has landed."

Thomas J. Kelley, who served as the engineering manager and eventually deputy program manager for the lunar module program, has said, "We didn't know anything about space anymore than most people did at that time. But we did know a lot about producing reliable flying machines."

Kelley's mechanical engineering and propulsion concepts and designs helped shape the plans for the Apollo missions. Thirteen lunar modules were built and six landed on the moon.

No. 13, which was to have flown on the canceled Apollo 18 flight, is on permanent loan from the Smithsonian Institution to the Cradle of Aviation Museum. The last Apollo flight (Apollo 17) took place in December 1972.

The story of the Apollo program is told in other ASME landmarks as well. An Apollo command module, built by Rockwell and which flew as Apollo 14 in 1971, was designated an ASME landmark in 1992.

The Saturn V rockets that launched the Apollo crafts were designated in 1980, at space centers in Alabama, Florida and Texas.

For a complete roster of ASME landmarks and up-to-date news about engineering-related history, visit ASME's online history center at www.asme.org/history/.

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