"How Many Apollo Missions Were There, And What did the Astronauts do?"

All in all, the Apollo program embarked upon  seventeen missions,  although only thirteen of those missions were  manned by astronauts. Following the tragic fire that occurred on the launch pad  of Apollo one, killing its three crew members, Apollo missions two through to  six were unmanned test flights for reasons of safety. The following paragraphs  provide the complete mission descriptions of all of the manned Apollo flights,  from Apollo one in 1967 to Apollo 17 in late 1972, which saw Astronauts Cernan  and Schmitt leave the last human footprints on the lunar surface;

Apollo I

January 27 1967. Crew; Cmdr Virgil  I Grissom, CMP Edward H White II, LMP Roger B Chaffee. Description; Crew died in  fire on launch pad during testing.

Apollo VII

October 11-22 1968. Crew; Cmdr  Walter M Schirra, CMP Donn F Eisele, LMP R Walter Cunningham. Description; First  manned test of command and service modules; 163 earth orbits, Duration 10 days,  20 hours and 9 mins.

Apollo VIII

December 21-27 1968. Crew; Cmdr  Frank Borman, CMP James M Lovell, LMP William A Anders. Description; First  manned flight around the moon, 10 orbits on December 24th 1968. Duration 6 days,  3 hours and 1 min.

Apollo IX

March 3-13 1969. Crew; Cmdr James  A McDivitt, CMP David R Scott, LMP Russell L Schweickart. Description; Earth  orbit test of entire Apollo Vehicle, 38 min spacewalk. Duration; 10 days, 1  hour, 1 minute.

Apollo X

May 18-26 1969. Crew; Cmdr Thomas  P Stafford, CMP John W Young, LMP Eugene A Cernan. Description; Rehearsal for  lunar landing, LMP decended to 50,000 feet above moons surface. Duration; 8  days, 3 mins.

Apollo XI

July 16-24 1969. Crew; Cmdr Neil A  Armstrong, CMP Michael Collins, LMP Edwin E Aldrin. Description; First manned  lunar landing On July 20th 1969, Sea Of Tranquility. 47.7 pounds of samples  collected. Duration; 8 days, 3 hours, 18 mins.

Apollo XII

November 14-24 1969. Crew; Cmdr  Charles Conrad, CMP Richard F Gordon, LMP Alan L Bean. Description; Second  manned lunar landing, November 19th, Ocean Of Storms. 75.7 pounds of samples  collected. Duration; 10 days, 4 hours, 36 mins.

Apollo XIII

April 11-17 1970. Crew; Cmdr James  A Lovell, CMP John L Swigert, LMP Fred W Haise. Description; Third lunar landing  attempt which had to be aborted due to an explosion of an oxygen tank inside the  service module. Crew managed to coast home despite all the odds and survived to  tell the tale. The mission was described as a 'successful failure'. Duration; 5  days, 22 hours, 54 mins.

Apollo XIV

January 31-Febraury 9 1971. Crew;  Cmdr Alan B Shepard, CMP Stewart A Roosa, LMP Edgar D Mitchell. Description;  Third lunar landing, first dedicated solely to scientific exploration. Landed at  Fra Mauro Highlands. 94.4 pounds of samples collected. Alan Shepard became the  first human to play golf on the moon!. Duration; 9 days and 2  mins.

Apollo XV

July 26-August 7th 1971. Crew;  Cmdr David R Scott, CMP Alfred M Worden, LMP James B Irwin. Description; Fourth  lunar landing and the first to incorporate the lunar rover, an electronic car.  Landed July 30th at Hadley-Apennine Plains. 169 pounds of samples collected.  Duration; 12 days, 7 hours and 12 mins.

Apollo XVI

April 16-27 1972. Crew; Cmdr John  W Young, CMP T Kenneth Mattingly, LMP Charles M Duke. Description; Fifth lunar  landing, explored the moons central highlands. Landed April 20th at Descartes  Highlands. Lunar rover in operation, 208.3 pounds of samples collected.  Duration; 11 days, 1 hour and 51 mins.

Apollo XVII

December 7-19 1972. Crew; Cmdr  Eugene A Cernan, CMP Ronald E Evans, LMP Harrison H Schmitt. Description; Sixth  and final landing on the moons surface (to date). Lunar rover in operation,  Schmitt was the first scientist on the moon. Landed December 11th at  Taurus-Littrow Valley. 243.1 pounds of samples collected. Duration; 12 days, 13  hours and 51 mins.