Direct ascent

Artist's conception early Apollo spacecraft that used direct ascent

Direct ascent was a proposed method for a mission to the Moon. ^[1] In the United States, direct ascent proposed using the enormous Nova rocket to launch a spacecraft directly to the Moon, where it would land tail-first and then launch off the Moon back to Earth. The other options that NASA considered for the mission to the moon were Lunar Orbit Rendezvous and Earth Orbit Rendezvous.^[1]

The Soviets also considered several direct ascent-strategies, though in the end they settled on an approach similar to NASA's: two men in a Soyuz spacecraft capsule and a one-man lander. The failure of the Soviets' N1 Rocket delayed their lunar program substantially, however, and they were nowhere close when Apollo 11 lifted off and made the first lunar landing.^{[citation needed]}

Science fiction movies such as Destination Moon had frequently depicted direct ascent missions. In real life, however, it was discarded due to the near impossibility of landing a rocket the size of the Atlas tail-first on the Moon.^{[citation needed]}

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "NASA - Lunar Orbit Rendezvous and the Apollo Program". NASA. April 22 2008. http://www.nasa.gov/centers/langley/news/factsheets/Rendezvous.html. 

See also

Spaceflight portal

• Lunex Project
• Project Apollo