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Lunar
Excursion Module - The Surviving LEMs
The Grumman company headquartered in
Bethpage, New York out on Long Island won the
contract to build the Lunar Module that
first carried American astronauts to the Moon.
Tom Kelly of Grumman, whose story was featured in
Part V (Spider) of the HBO series "From the
Earth to the Moon" was an instrumental
figure in the design and construction of the LEM
served as the Chief Engineer on the project. I
had the opportunity to talk with Tom in 2000 just
one year after the 30th anniversary of the Apollo
11 landing. He was generous with his time and
later sent me an autographed copy of his memoir.
Listening to him describe the heyday of the space
race and his involvement gave me the true feeling
of what that era was like. Sadly, Tom passed away
in March of 2002 at the age of 72. His work and
accomplishments live on.
Grumman constructed a total of
fourteen LEMs with six (Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15,
16, 17) making touchdowns on the lunar surface,
three others were manned (Apollo 9, 10, 13) in
earth or lunar missions (Apollo 9 was limited to
Earth orbit test, Apollo 10 lunar tests, and on
Apollo 13 the LEM served at a lifeboat). Apollo 5
marked the first flight for a LEM although this
was an unmanned Earth orbit test. LEM 3 was used
on Apollo 9, LEM 4 on Apollo 10 and LEM 5 was the
"Eagle" which was the first to land on
the Moon. The remaining three LEMs (LEM 2, LEM,
9. LEM 13) that were built, but never flew are
featured below and are display at the Kennedy
Space Center in Florida, Cradle of Aviation
Museum on Long Island and the at the National Air
and Space Museum in downtown Washington, D.C..
One Lunar Module is still flying through space
today, "Snoopy" as it was named by the
crew was the LEM used on Apollo 10 and it is in a
heliocentric orbit. All other LEMs that flew have
either impacted the lunar surface or burned up in
Earth's atmosphere. For an in-depth history on
the efforts to develop and build the Lunar Module
read Tom Kelly's book "Moon Lander".
Click on any image for a larger
version
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One
of the surviving LTAs (LEM Training
Articles). This one is on display at the
Cradle of Aviation Museum on Long Island.
This photo taken on a trip in May 2004.
Note the round hatch and the structure
detail. |
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Interior
view of the LEM cockpit on display at the
Cradle of Aviation Museum on Long Island. |
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The
last Lunar Module. This is LEM-13 an
actual Lunar Module that was scheduled on
the the Apollo 19 mission before the
program was canceled. Housed at the
Cradle of Aviation Museum on Long Island.
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This
is LEM-2 on display at the National Air
and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.
This Lunar Module was scheduled to fly
unmanned in Earth orbit, but after LEM-1
flew on the fully unmanned Apollo 5
mission it was determined that another
pilotless flight wasn't needed. LEM-2
then became used on "drop
tests" to assess the landing gear. |
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One
of only three flight ready LEMs that
never flew. This is LEM-9. It was
scheduled to fly on Apollo 15, but was
replaced with the upgraded with a larger
LEM that was capable of a longer stay on
the surface. This one is on display at
the Saturn V center at the Kennedy Space
Center in Florida. I took this picture on
a trip in April 2004. |
Next: STS-117 The Launch of the
Space Shuttle Atlantis
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