What are Apollo's plants?

Apollo, named after the Greek god of the sun, light, music, and prophecy, was NASA’s program for human spaceflight missions beyond low Earth orbit. From 1961 to 1972, Apollo successfully completed several crewed spaceflights, including the first lunar landing in 1969 with Apollo 11. The Apollo program used a series of rockets including the Saturn V, which remains the most powerful rocket ever brought to operational status. During its program duration, Apollo greatly advanced technology and scientific discovery, setting several human spaceflight milestones that remain unbroken. So what exactly were the plants involved in making Apollo’s journeys to the Moon possible?

Table of Contents

Saturn V Rocket

The Saturn V rocket was designed specifically for the Apollo program and remains the most powerful operational launch vehicle ever built. It had three rocket stages and was 111 meters tall and 10 meters in diameter. The Saturn V carried all Apollo lunar missions and was used to launch the Skylab space station. The rocket was developed at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Key plants involved in its development were:

Michoud Assembly Facility, New Orleans – Manufactured and assembled the giant first stage of the Saturn V known as the S-IC. This stage was powered by five F-1 engines that burned RP-1 and liquid oxygen.
Rocketdyne Division, Canoga Park, California – Developed and built the F-1 engines for the S-IC first stage.
Boeing, Michoud Assembly Facility – Manufactured the S-II second stage, which was powered by five J-2 engines burning liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen.

Rocketdyne Division, Canoga Park, California – Developed and built the J-2 engines for the S-II second stage.
Douglas Aircraft Company, Huntington Beach, California – Manufactured the S-IVB third stage, which used a single J-2 engine and could be restarted in flight.
Aerojet General, Sacramento, California – Provided the solid rocket motors for the Saturn launch escape system.

These key plants were part of a nationwide network supporting Saturn V development and production. At its peak, the Saturn V program employed around 34,000 people across multiple states.

Apollo Spacecraft

The Apollo spacecraft was designed for three astronauts and comprised two key elements – the Command Module and the Lunar Module. It was developed at North American Aviation and Grumman Aircraft. Plants involved included:

Downey, California – North American Aviation plant where the Command and Service Modules were manufactured and assembled.

Bethpage, New York – Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation plant where the Lunar Modules were produced.

The conical Command Module housed the crew compartment and was the only part of the Apollo spacecraft to return to Earth. The cylindrical Service Module supported the Command Module with propulsion, electrical power, water and oxygen. The Lunar Module had two stages and ferried astronauts between lunar orbit and the surface.

Space Suits

Apollo astronauts wore specialized space suits to survive the extreme conditions of spacewalks and lunar surface exploration. The A7L suit was developed by ILC Dover in Delaware and was first used on the Apollo 7 mission in 1968. Key plants involved were:

ILC Dover, Delaware – Designed and manufactured the Apollo A7L space suits worn by astronauts.
Hamilton Standard Division, Windsor Locks, Connecticut – Developed and built the Portable Life Support System backpacks worn by astronauts.

The 21-layer A7L suits provided protection against the temperatures extremes of +/- 250°F, micrometeoroids, and radiation. They enabled mobility on the lunar surface while maintaining a safe pressurized environment. Each suit was made to fit each astronaut individually.

Lunar Roving Vehicle

The Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) was a battery-powered rover used on the last three Apollo missions (15, 16, and 17) to enable greater surface mobility for astronauts exploring the Moon. The LRV was designed and developed by Boeing at their plant in Kent, Washington. Key details include:

Weight – 210 kg on Earth, 35 kg on Moon
Top speed – 13 km/h

Range – 92 km
Open chassis with foldable parabolic antenna
Wire mesh wheels with chevron treads

The LRV allowed astronauts to explore greater distances from the lunar module than would have been possible on foot. In total, the three LRVs driven on the Moon traversed over 90 km in a combined 192 hours of use.

Lunar Receiving Laboratory

When the Apollo astronauts returned from the Moon, there were strict protocols to reduce any chance of back contamination from exposure to unsterilized lunar material. A key facility supporting the quarantine process was the Lunar Receiving Laboratory (LRL) at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. The LRL was built by Brown & Root for $7.8 million and had key features including:

Crew Reception Area
Sample Operations Area
Lunar Sample Laboratory

3 Crew Quarantine Chambers

The LRL was used to isolate and study the lunar samples returned by Apollo’s missions to the Moon. In addition to lunar material study, the LRL also supported biology and medical studies on the Apollo astronauts returning from lunar missions.

Mission Control Center

The nerve center of Apollo’s missions was NASA’s Mission Control Center at Johnson Space Center in Houston. It coordinated and monitored all crewed Apollo flights, from launch to splashdown. The Mission Control Center (MCC) originally consisted of two mission control rooms – Mission Operation Control Room 1 and 2. Key features included:

Multiple computer and communications systems console areas
Large wall-mounted map of the Moon for tracking lunar missions
“Tier 1” room for flight controllers directly supporting the mission

“Tier 2” room for support personnel assisting flight controllers

At the height of Apollo, the MCC had almost 400 personnel supporting each mission. Their coordination and problem-solving abilities were crucial for the success and safety of Apollo crews.

Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39

The Apollo missions launched from Launch Complex 39 at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The complex was specifically built for the Saturn V rocket and Apollo spacecraft. Key features of Launch Complex 39 included:

Two huge launch pads – Pad A and Pad B
Massive Vehicle Assembly Building for stacking rockets
High Bay 3 in the VAB was the main Apollo/Saturn V integration facility

Crawler-transporters to move rockets and spacecraft
Firing Room 1 in the Launch Control Center handled Apollo mission launches

At its peak in 1967-68, Launch Complex 39 employed around 25,000 people working round-the-clock. From this site, all Saturn V rockets carrying Apollo astronauts launched on their journeys to the Moon.

Worldwide Tracking Network

A worldwide network of tracking stations and ships supported Apollo missions when they were not in range of US ground stations. Key elements included:

9 ships stationed in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans
11 prime tracking stations on land located around the world

Over a dozen supplementary stations providing additional coverage
The Mercury, Redstone, Gemini, Minitrack, and Deep Space networks

Some notable tracking stations included:

Station Name	Location
Honeysuckle Creek	Canberra, Australia
Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex	California, USA
Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex	Spain
Tidbinbilla	Canberra, Australia

This global tracking network enabled mission controllers in Houston to maintain constant voice, telemetry, and television contact with Apollo spacecraft throughout each mission.

Apollo Guidance Computer

The Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) was the compact onboard computer system that provided vital navigation, guidance, and systems control functions for the Apollo spacecraft. The AGC had the following features and capabilities:

Developed at MIT Instrumentation Laboratory

Weighed 32 kg and consumed 70 watts power
4,096 words of erasable magnetic core memory
Processing speed of 0.043 MHz

Display and keyboard interface for astronauts

Despite its compact size, the AGC provided the vital calculations for trajectories, maneuvers, lunar landing guidance and abort options independent of Earth. Apollo missions would not have been possible without the AGC.

Simulator Training

Extensive simulator training was essential to prepare Apollo astronauts for their missions. Key Apollo simulator training facilities included:

Command Module Simulators
Lunar Module Simulators
Static Apollo test articles converted to simulators

Saturn V Dynamic Test Vehicle converted to simulator
Cockpit simulator for practicing lunar landings

Hundreds of hours in the simulators allowed astronauts to realistically practice procedures, failures and contingencies so that they were fully prepared for any situation on an actual mission.

Apollo Tooling and Manufacturing

Apollo required vast amounts of precisely engineered tooling and manufacturing capabilities to produce its many complex spacecraft components and rocket engines. Some key tooling stats included:

The F-1 engine required over 550 specialized tools
The J-2 engine needed around 300 individual tools

The Apollo Command Module had over 2,000 production tools
The Lunar Module required around 10,000 tools

These tools were used to produce millions of precision parts that had to meet stringent requirements for spaceflight. Apollo hardware was manufactured to extremely close tolerances even by today’s standards.

Astronaut Training Facilities

As NASA’s first crewed program sending astronauts beyond Earth orbit, Apollo astronauts had to receive extensive training for lunar missions. Key training facilities included:

Morehead Planetarium, University of North Carolina – Used for celestial navigation training
USGS Astrogeology Center, Flagstaff, Arizona – Geology training for investigating the lunar surface

Mojave Desert sites – Practiced lunar EVAs and using Apollo hardware
Neutral Buoyancy Simulator, Maryland – Trained for lunar EVAs underwater
Kennedy Space Center – Emergency egress training from the Apollo spacecraft

Apollo astronauts accumulated over 5,000 hours each of mission-specific training to prepare for the unique challenges of navigating to the Moon and exploring its surface.

Apollo Mission Patches

Each Apollo mission had its own unique embroidered patch that identified the mission and crew. The patches were designed and produced by several manufacturers and suppliers:

AB Emblem, Antioch, California

Alfredo Atanacio, El Paso, Texas
Mil-Spec Manufacturing Corp, New York City, New York
Topps Emblem, New York City, New York

These iconic mission patches were proudly worn by both the Apollo astronauts and personnel supporting the missions. They commemorated each milestone achievement of the Apollo program.

Mission	Manufacturer
Apollo 1	AB Emblem
Apollo 7	Alfredo Atanacio
Apollo 11	Topps Emblem
Apollo 16	AB Emblem

The mission patches were an important part of the iconography of the Apollo program and captured the spirit and historic scope of NASA’s journey to the Moon.

Conclusion

While the flights of the Saturn V rocket and Apollo spacecraft were the most visible parts of the Apollo program, they were supported by a vast array of facilities, infrastructure, technology and personnel. From factories to tracking stations, from Mission Control to the lunar receiving laboratory, thousands of engineers, technicians, controllers, and support staff around the country and across the world were instrumental in enabling NASA’s Apollo program to successfully land humans on the Moon. Their hard work and dedication made the first lunar landings possible and planted the flag of the United States on the Moon’s surface.