Apollo Lunar Module

Apollo LM

Mission Profile

The Apollo Lunar Module (LM) is the only crewed spacecraft designed and flown exclusively outside Earth's atmosphere, serving as the descent stage and ascent stage for NASA's Moon landings between 1969 and 1972. Built by Grumman Aircraft Engineering, it carried two astronauts from lunar orbit to the lunar surface and back using separate descent and ascent propulsion systems, each with a single fixed-thrust engine burning hypergolic propellants for automatic ignition reliability. Twelve astronauts descended to the lunar surface across six successful landing missions from Apollo 11 through Apollo 17, exploring six distinct locations and returning 382 kg of lunar samples. The LM remains the only vehicle to have carried humans to the surface of another world.