Its major objectives were:

*To establish the technology to meet other national interests in space;

*To achieve preeminence in space for the United States;

*To carry out a program of scientific exploration of the Moon;

*To develop man's capability to work in the lunar environment.

However the main objective was "landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth" (U.S. President John F. Kennedy) This goal was first achieved with the Apollo 11 mission in July 1969. In total 6 of the missions (Apollos 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17) achieved this goal.

Apollo 11 was the first manned mission to land on the Moon. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first humans on the Moon (July 20, 1969). Cosmonaut Neil Armstrong said: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

The Apollo program included a large number of uncrewed test missions and 11 crewed missions. The boosters for the program were the Saturn IB for Earth orbit flights and the Saturn V for lunar flights. Total funding for the Apollo program was about $19,408,134,000.