Four-phase Apollo (1968)

Bell Laboratories created Bellcomm, Inc., in 1962 at NASA's request. The new company's purpose was to provide the space agency with technical planning advice. Among other tasks, Washington, DC-based Bellcomm performed studies to identify and propose ways of meeting anticipated Apollo Program requirements. In a January 1968 memorandum, Bellcomm planners Noel Hinners, D. B. James, and F. N. Schmidt sought to fill a gap in Apollo plans that they believed existed between the first piloted Apollo moon landing and later Apollo Applications Program (AAP) advanced lunar missions. They wrote that their proposal for a 13-mission, four-phase Apollo Program was "based upon a reasonable set of assumptions regarding hardware capability and evolution, an increase in scientific endeavor, launch rates, budgetary constraints, operational learning, lead times, and interaction with other space programs," as well as "the assumption that lunar exploration will be a continuing aspect of human endeavor." Hinners, James, and Schmidt anticipated that their Phase 1 and 2 missions would provide "ground truth" data that would permit Phase 3 results to be accurately interpreted ahead of intensive lunar surface exploration in Phase 4.Phase 1, spanning from 1969 through 1971, would comprise five Apollo Lunar Landing Missions. The Phase 1 missions would ...