Apollo, NASA history collection, NASA Apollo program

An early lunar excursion model was designed on a Friday afternoon in early 1961 by John D. Bird and Ralph W. Stone, Jr., of Langley Research Center for project. Courtney G. Brooks, James M. Grimwood, and Loyd S. Swenson, Jr. wrote in Chariots For Apollo: A History of Manned Lunar Spacecraft: "From December 1960 to the summer of 1961, Langley continued its analyses of lunar-orbit rendezvous as it applied to a manned lunar landing. Bird and Stone among others, studied hardware concepts and procedures, ascent trajectories between the landing site and lunar orbit, and final rendezvous and docking maneuvers. Their findings were distributed in technical reports throughout NASA and in papers presented to professional organizations and space flight societies. In the spring of 1961, these Langley engineers compiled a paper proposing a three-phase plan for developing rendezvous capabilities that would ultimately lead to manned lunar landings: (1) MORAD (Manned Orbital Rendezvous and docking), using a Mercury capsule to prove the feasibility of manned rendezvous and to establish confidence in the techniques; (2) ARP (Apollo Rendezvous Phase), using Atlas, Agena, and Saturn vehicles to develop a variety of rendezvous capabilities in earth orbit; and (3) MALLIR (Manned Lunar Landing Involving Rendezvous), employing Saturn and Apollo components to place men on the moon." (p. 69)
NASA Identifier: L61-6790