Summary of Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions
| Note | Throughout tables the European time format (day/month/year) is used; all times are UTC. |
| Mission | Spacecraft | Crew | Mission duration [UTC] | Landing site | Purpose / mission highlights / noticeable events | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| no. | designation | callsign | lift-off | landing | |||
| Mercury | |||||||
| 1 | MR-3 | Freedom 7 | 1 | 05/05/1961 | 05/05/1961 | Atlantic Ocean | ballistic/suborbital test flight of 15 min, 22 sec duration; Redstone rocket; apogee reached was 187.5 km; landing only 486 km downrange; Alan Shepard |
| 2 | MR-4 | Liberty Bell 7 | 1 | 21/07/1961 | 21/07/1961 | Atlantic Ocean | ballistic/suborbital test flight of 15 min, 37 sec duration; Redstone rocket; apogee reached was 190.3 km; landing only 420 km downrange; capsule drowned after splashdown; Virgil Grissom safely recovered |
| 3 | MA-6 | Friendship 7 | 1 | 20/02/1962 | 20/02/1962 | Atlantic Ocean | first orbital flight of 4 hrs, 55 min duration (three orbits); Mercury-Atlas rocket; John Glenn |
| 4 | MA-7 | Aurora 7 | 1 | 24/05/1962 | 24/05/1962 | Atlantic Ocean | second orbital flight of 4 hrs, 56 min duration (three orbits); Scott Carpenter |
| 5 | MA-8 | Sigma 7 | 1 | 03/10/1962 | 03/10/1962 | Pacific Ocean | third orbital flight of 9 hrs, 13 min duration (six orbits); Walter Schirra |
| 6 | MA-9 | Faith 7 | 1 | 15/05/1963 | 16/05/1963 | Pacific Ocean | fourth orbital and last Mercury flight of 1 day, 10 hrs, 19 min duration (22 orbits); Gordon Cooper |
| Mission | Spacecraft | Crew | Mission duration [UTC] | Landing site | Purpose / mission highlights / noticeable events | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| no. | designation | callsign | lift-off | landing | |||
| Gemini | |||||||
| 1 | Gemini III | Molly Brown (unofficial) | 2 | 23/03/1965 | 23/03/1965 | Atlantic Ocean | first two men crew test flight of 4 hrs, 53 min duration (three orbits); Titan-II rocket; Virgil Grissom, John Young |
| 2 | Gemini IV | Gemini 4 | 2 | 03/06/1965 | 07/06/1965 | Atlantic Ocean | first US extravehicular activity (EVA) by Ed White; duration 4 days, 1 hour, 56 minutes (62 orbits); James McDivitt, Edward White |
| 3 | Gemini V | Gemini 5 | 2 | 21/08/1965 | 28/08/1965 | Atlantic Ocean | first weeklong mission; rendezvous with Agena fails; duration 7 days, 22 hours, 55 minutes (120 orbits); Gordon Cooper, Charles Conrad |
| 4 | Gemini VII | Gemini 7 | 2 | 04/12/1966 | 18/12/1966 | Atlantic Ocean | double mission with Gemini VI-A; rendezvous up to 0.3 m distance; duration 13 days, 18 hours, 35 minutes (206 orbits); Frank Bormann, James Lovell |
| 5 | Gemini VI-A | Gemini 6A | 2 | 15/12/1966 | 16/12/1966 | Atlantic Ocean | 7.5 hrs formation flight with Gemini VII; several mission delays; duration 1 day, 1 hour, 51 minutes (16 orbits); Walter Schirra, Thomas Stafford |
| 6 | Gemini VIII | Gemini 8 | 2 | 16/03/1966 | 16/03/1966 | Atlantic Ocean | first docking with Agena; critically tumbling spacecraft teminates mission; duration 10 hours, 41 minutes (six orbits); Neil Armstrong, David Scott |
| 7 | Gemini IX-A | Gemini 9A | 2 | 03/06/1966 | 06/06/1966 | Atlantic Ocean | three rendezvous manoeuvres with Agena; troublesome EVA; duration 3 days, 20 minutes (47 orbits); Thomas Stafford, Eugene Cernan |
| 8 | Gemini X | Gemini 10 | 2 | 18/07/1966 | 21/07/1966 | Atlantic Ocean | several successful docking and rendezvous manoeuvres with Agena; duration 2 days, 22 hours, 46 minutes (43 orbits); John Young, Michael Collins |
| 9 | Gemini XI | Gemini 11 | 2 | 12/09/1966 | 15/09/1966 | Atlantic Ocean | successful repeat of Gemini X mission; troublesome EVAs; duration 2 days, 23 hours, 17 minutes (44 orbits); Charles Conrad, Richard Gordon |
| 10 | Gemini XII | Gemini 12 | 2 | 11/11/1966 | 15/11/1966 | Atlantic Ocean | final and most successful Gemini flight preparing for Apollo programme; duration 3 days, 22 hours, 34 minutes (59 orbits); James Lovell, Edwin Aldrin |
| Mission | Spacecraft | Crew | Mission duration [UTC] | Landing site | Purpose / mission highlights / noticeable events | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| no. | designation | callsign (CSM / LM) | lift-off | landing | |||
| Apollo | |||||||
| - | Apollo 1 | - | 3 | 27/01/1967 | - | - | catastrophic fire during launch pad test kills astronauts Virgil Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee |
| 1 | Apollo 7 | Apollo 7 | 3 | 11/10/1968 | 22/10/1968 | Atlantic Ocean | first three man spacecraft; Saturn 1B rocket; Walter Schirra, Donn Eisele, Walter Cunningham |
| 2 | Apollo 8 | Apollo 8 | 3 | 21/12/1968 | 27/12/1968 | Pacific Ocean | first manned voyage to the moon (ten lunar orbits); Saturn V rocket; Frank Bormann, James Lovell, William Anders |
| 3 | Apollo 9 | Gumdrop / Spider | 3 (2) | 03/03/1969 | 13/03/1969 | Atlantic Ocean | all lunar rendezvous manoeuvres tested in Earth orbit; James McDivitt, David Scott, Russell Schweickart |
| 4 | Apollo 10 | Charlie Brown / Snoopy | 3 (2) | 18/05/1969 | 26/05/1969 | Pacific Ocean | moon voyage including simulated descent; Eugene Cernan, John Young, Thomas Stafford |
| 5 | Apollo 11 | Columbia / Eagle | 3 (2) | 16/07/1969 | 23/07/1969 | Pacific Ocean | first successful landing on moon; Neil Armstrong (1st), Edwin Aldrin (2nd), Michael Collins |
| 6 | Apollo 12 | Yankee Clipper / Intrepid | 3 (2) | 14/11/1969 | 24/11/1969 | Pacific Ocean | second moon landing; lightning strike after lift-off; Charles Conrad, Alan Bean, Richard Gordon |
| 7 | Apollo 13 | Odyssee / Aquarius | 3 | 11/04/1970 | 17/04/1970 | Pacific Ocean | oxygen tank explodes on the way to the moon; James Lovell, John Swigert and Fred Haise rescued |
| 8 | Apollo 14 | Kitty Hawk / Antares | 3 (2) | 31/01/1971 | 08/02/1971 | Pacific Ocean | third successful landing on moon; Alan Shepard, Edgar Mitchell, Stuart Roosa |
| 9 | Apollo 15 | Endeavour / Falcon | 3 (2) | 26/07/1971 | 07/08/1971 | Pacific Ocean | fourth moon landing and first use of lunar rover; David Scott, James Irwin, Alfred Worden |
| 10 | Apollo 16 | Casper / Orion | 3 (2) | 16/04/1972 | 27/04/1972 | Pacific Ocean | fifth moon landing and second use of lunar rover; John Young, Charles Duke, Thomas Mattingly |
| 11 | Apollo 17 | America / Challenger | 3 (2) | 07/12/1972 | 19/12/1972 | Pacific Ocean | final and longest successful moon mission; Eugene Cernan, Harrison Schmitt, Ronald Evans |
| 12 | Skylab 2 | Skylab | 3 | 25/05/1973 | 22/06/1973 | Pacific Ocean | docking to first US space station Skylab-1; Charles Conrad, Joseph Kerwin, Paul Weitz |
| 13 | Skylab 3 | Skylab | 3 | 28/07/1973 | 26/09/1973 | Pacific Ocean | second visit to Skylab-1; more than 13 hrs EVA; Alan Bean, Owen Garriott, Jack Lousma |
| 14 | Skylab 4 | Skylab | 3 | 16/11/1973 | 08/02/1974 | Pacific Ocean | final and record breaking (long endurance) Skylab-1 visit; Gerald Carr, Edward Gibson, William Pogue |
| 15 | Apollo ASTP | Apollo | 3 | 15/07/1975 | 24/07/1975 | Pacific Ocean | only rendezvous with Russian spacecraft (Soyuz-19); Thomas Stafford, Vance Brand, Donald Slayton |