9 Jul 2019

History in Two: The Lunar Landing Research Vehicle

This month marks the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing in 1969. Over a decade prior to this, and nearly four years before President Kennedy’s famous speech, ARDC’s Ballistic Missile Division began research on high thrust space vehicles capable of lunar flights. In January 1957, the ARDC (Air Research and Development Center) invited the N.A.C.A (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics) to collaborate on future space plans and projects. With the decision to use civilians for space flight, NASA was formed in July 1958 and began operations in October to carryout the flights to the moon. Among the many undertakings for landing on the moon, a Lunar Landing Research Vehicle project was begun, even before NASA had selected the strategy to use a Lunar Module.