Apollo Command and Service Module

Apollo CSM

Mission Profile

Apollo Command and Service Module (Apollo CSM) is the primary crewed spacecraft of NASA's Apollo program, consisting of a conical Command Module housing three astronauts and a cylindrical Service Module providing propulsion, power, and life support during transit to and from the Moon. The Command Module withstood reentry temperatures exceeding 2,800°C using an ablative heat shield and splashed down in the ocean for recovery, with the Service Module being jettisoned beforehand. First flown unmanned in February 1966, the Apollo CSM successfully carried 27 astronauts to lunar orbit across nine Apollo missions and supported the three Skylab station crews and the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. The Command Module remains the only American spacecraft to have carried humans beyond low Earth orbit.