Gallery: The Incredible Things NASA Did to Train Apollo Astronauts
01flag-training
On the [anniversary of the first man on the moon](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/thisdayintech/2009/07/dayintech_0720/), and with the final space shuttle mission set to end Thursday, Wired.com takes a look back at the extraordinary amount of training astronauts go through before they are mission ready. Apollo astronauts practiced every second of their mission, even planting the flag (above), many times, indoors, outdoors, in space suits, underwater, in planes, in centrifuges, in pools, in the ocean and anywhere else NASA saw fit. They were prepared for every contingency and trained for water planned landings as well as desert and jungle survival in case their capsule missed the ocean and hit land. They learned geology, how to withstand g-forces, maneuver in low- and zero-gravity conditions, and how to drive electric rovers and land the lunar module. Here are some of the most memorable photos of the rigorous Apollo astronaut training from NASA's image archive. __Above:__ Planting the Flag ----------------- The Apollo 14 flight crew practices planting the flag during a lunar walk simulation.
UNKNOWN02ladder-training
One Small Step -------------- Neil Armstrong practices reaching the first rung of the ladder to climb back into the Lunar Module *Eagle* in this image from July 9, 1969, one week before Apollo 11 launched.
03reduced-gravity-walking-simulator
Reduced Gravity Walking Simulator --------------------------------- Suspending a person at an angle and having them walk along a wall let them experience one-sixth of their weight, the equivalent to walking in reduced gravity on the moon. Scientists studied subjects as they walked, jumped or ran to learn about speed, fatigue limits and energy use. The original Reduced Gravity Walking Simulator, shown above in 1963, was located in the hangar at Langley Research Center in Virginia. A later version, shown below in 1968, was located at Langley's Lunar Landing Facility. [](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/07/sideways-2_GPN-2000-001900.jpg)
04lunar-landing-research-vehicle
Lunar Landing Research Vehicle ------------------------------ This free-flying vehicle was designed to simulate landing on the moon's surface. It was built by NASA and Bell Aerosystems out of tubular aluminum with A General Electric turbofan engine with 4200 pounds of thrust. The engine needed to get the vehicle up to 1500 feet elevation and then throttled back to support five-sixths of the vehicle's weight to imitate the moon's lower gravity. In the image above, Neil Armstrong is going through a six-minute training flight that reached 300 feet in altitude on June 16, 1969, a month before Apollo 11 launched. The images below show the LLRV in training flights in 1964 and 1967. [](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/07/LLRV-1_ECN-506.jpg) [](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/07/LLRV_ECN-1606.jpg)
05water-egress-training
Water Landing ------------- The Apollo spacecraft were designed to return to Earth by landing in the ocean, which meant extensive water egress training for the astronauts. This involved practicing with model spacecraft in pools and the Gulf of Mexico. Above, the crew of Apollo 1 practices in a swimming pool in 1966. Astronaut Edward white is in the life raft in the front of the image, astronaut Roger Chaffee sits in the hatch and astronaut Virgil Grissom is inside the spacecraft. Below, the crew of Apollo 7 practices getting out of a model spacecraft in the Gulf of Mexico in 1968. astronaut Walter Schirra is stepping into the raft with astronauts Donn Eisele and Walter Cunningham. In the bottom image, some of the Apollo 14 crew wait to be picked up by a Coast Guard helicopter int the Gulf of Mexico in 1970. [](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/07/water_S68-46605.jpg) [](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/07/water_S70-53045.jpg)
06indoor-moonscapes
Indoor Moonscapes ----------------- Apollo astronauts spent many hours inside NASA facilities, spacesuits on, practicing every aspect of their missions in timeline run-throughs. Above, Apollo 12 astronauts Charles Conrad (left) and Alan Bean practice documenting lunar rock samples at Kennedy Space Center in 1969. Below, Apollo 11 astronauts simulate gathering soil samples with tongs and scoop in 1969. Neil Armstrong holds the sample bag for Buzz Aldrin with a Lunar Module mockup behind them. In the bottom photo, Armstrong practices scooping up soil at the Manned Spacecraft Center. [](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/07/indoor_GPN-2002-000032.jpg) [](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/07/indoor_S69-31048.jpg)
07sample-collection
Sample Collection ----------------- This series of photographs from September 1972, Apollo 17 astronauts Harrison Schmitt and Eugene Cernan practice collecting samples on a simulated lunar surface at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. [](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/07/moonscape_S72-48891.jpg) [](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/07/moonscape_S72-48889.jpg)
08lunar-roving-vehicle
Lunar Roving Vehicle -------------------- A new lightweight electric car was built to be the [Lunar Roving Vehicle](http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/apollo_lrv.html) for Apollo 15, 16 and 17. It was designed to help the astronauts go further and do more than they could on foot. The LRV is shown above in 1970 at the Marshall Space Center during a final crew training with Apollo 16 astronauts John Young (right) and Charles Duke. Below, the LRV after a training exercise in 1972 at Kennedy Space Center with Apollo 17 astronauts Harrison Schmitt (left) and Eugene Cernan. [](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/07/rover_S72-44423.jpg)
09geology-training
Geology Field Training ---------------------- Apollo astronauts went through geology field training to prepare for collecting rock samples on the moon. Above, Astronauts Jim Lovell (left) and Thomas Stafford examine some rocks in the Big Bend area of West Texas in 1964. The images below show Apollo 17 crew members on a 1972 geology field trip to south-central Nevada near the Pancake Range. Astronauts Eugene Cernan (right) and Harrison Schmitt wear backpacks and chest-mounted cameras as they would on the moon. The crater in the bottom photo is Lunar Crater, a 600-foot deep volcanic crater five-eights of a mile in diameter. [](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/07/geology_S72-48859.jpg) [](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/07/geology_S72-48854.jpg)
10jungle-survival-training
Jungle Survival Training ------------------------ The Apollo missions were designed to end in the ocean, which is why astronauts spent so much time practicing getting out of a capsule in swimming pools and in the ocean. but what if they missed the ocean entirely? For this contingency, the astronauts were also sent to the jungle and the desert for survival training. The astronauts attended the Panama Jungle Survival School on Albrook Air Force Base in the Panama Canal Zone. Above, astronauts Alfred Worden, Harrison Schmitt and Ronald Evans gather leaves and branches to build a lean-to in July, 1967. Directly below, astronauts Evans, Schmitt and Edgar Mitchell are shown floating down a river. In the bottom image, Mitchell has chopped down a tree. [](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/07/S67-357721.jpg) [](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/07/S67-35735.jpg)
11desert-survival-training
Desert Survival Training ------------------------ If a returning Apollo space capsule were to miss the ocean and hit land, NASA wanted its astronauts to be prepared to survive wherever they ended up. So in addition to jungle survival training in Panama, the men were sent to various locations, including Stead Air Force Base in Nevada and Washington state for desert survival training. Above, 14 NASA astronauts pose for a group photo after completing their desert training in Nevada in January 1964. Front row: (left to right) William Anders, Walter Cunningham, Roger Chaffee, Richard Gordon and Michael Collins. Second row: (left to right) Clifton Williams, Eugene Cernan, David Scott, Donn Eisele, Russell Schweickart, Edwin Aldrin, Alan Bean, Charles Bassett and Theodore Freeman. Directly below, astronauts Thomas Mattingly, Alfred Worden and John Swigert (left to right) learn how to handle a nonpoisonous snake with Medical Operations Officer James McGee during desert survival training in Washington State in August, 1967. In the bottom image, astronauts Jack Lousma, Don Lind and William Pogue try out the makeshift shelter they constructed during training in Washington state in August 1964. [](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/07/S67-41947.jpg) [](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/07/survival_S67-41971.jpg)
12walk-throughs
Mission Walk-Throughs --------------------- The Apollo astronauts practiced every aspect of their missions with and without their spacesuits on to be sure they understood everything they needed to do, worked out any kinks and avoided any surprises. In the photo above from 1970, Apollo 13 astronaut Fred Haise tries out a motorized core sampler while astronaut James Lovell observes. In the photo below, Apollo 16 astronauts practice a traverse at the Kennedy Space Center in 1972. Charles Duke carries a self-recording penetrometer designed to help study the soil mechanics of the lunar surface. A Lunar Rover training vehicle sits between Duke and John Young. Apollo 14 astronaut Alan Shepherd practices using geological tongs to gather samples at Kennedy Space Center in the bottom photo from 1970. [](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/07/moonscape_S72-30694.jpg) [](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/07/moonscape_S70-46157.jpg)
13neutral-buoyancy-simulation
Neutral Buoyancy Simulation --------------------------- One of the many ways astronauts trained to deal with low gravity and no gravity was by practicing space walks underwater. In the image above, Ed Gibson trains for Skylab Extra Vehicular Activity in Marshall Space Flight Center's Neutral Buoyancy Simulator in 1970. The structure is a mockup of the Apollo Telescope Mount Transfer Work Station. The photo below shows astronaut Ronald Evans of Apollo 17 training in a water tank at Johnson Space Center in 1972. The structure is a mockup of the Scientific Instrument Module. [](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/07/underwater-2_S72-49971.jpg)
14centrifuge-2
G-Force Training ---------------- The newly built centrifuge at Johnson Space Center's Manned Spacecraft Center, shown here in 1966, was designed primarily for training Apollo astronauts by simulating the g-forces experienced during controlled flight and reentry. "Three test subjects, lying side by side in couches inside a three-ton metal ball at the end of a 50-foot arm, will be whirled around a circular course at 24 revolutions per minute and speeds up to 88 miles per hour in mock spacecraft flights," reads a NASA press release from May 10, 1966.
15weightlessness-training
Weightlessness Training ----------------------- On July 9, 1969 astronaut Edwin Aldrin (above) put on his space suit to get a little more practice in weightless conditions aboard a KC-135 aircraft, which can simulate zero-gravity conditions by going up and down in parabolic arcs. This photo was taken a week before the launch of Apollo 11, which would make Aldrin and Neil Armstrong the first men to set foot on the moon. Below, astronaut Stuart Roosa, backup pilot for Apollo 17, took part in a spacewalk simulation in the KC-135 with a model of the Scientific Instrument Module bay in September, 1970. Roosa practiced retrieving the film from the mapping camera in the bay. In the bottom photo, astronaut Alan Shepard, Apollo 14 commander, practices pulling the Modular Equipment Transporter under weightless conditions on a KC-135 in November 1970. Astronaut Edgar Mitchell is behind him. [](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/07/weightless-2_GPN-2006-000018.jpg) [](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/07/weightless_S70-53479.jpg)
16rover-training
Lunar Rover Training -------------------- NASA built a model lunar surface at Kennedy Space Center for astronauts to practice driving the Lunar Roving Vehicle and simulate collecting samples. In the image above, astronaut Harrison Schmitt is seated on the right with astronaut Eugene Cernan on his left in 1972. Below, engineers from Delco Electronics Division of General Motors Corp., which built the rover, sit in a LRV trainer in 1970 that was shipped to the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston for an astronaut training program. In the bottom image, Apollo 15 astronauts David Scott and James Irwin ride an LRV simulator at the Cinder Lake crater field in Arizona in 1970. This rover, named Grover, was built by the U.S. Geological Survey. [](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/07/rover_7012082.jpg) [](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/07/rover_S70-53300.jpg)
