The Apollo Program, also known as Project Apollo, was the third US human spaceflight program carried out by NASA. The Apollo Project was dedicated to President John F. Kennedy's goal to "landing a man on the Moon by the end of this decade and returning him safely to the Earth", which was presented in an address to Congress in 1961. This was the beginning of the Space Race after Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the world's first artificial satellite and the first man-made object placed into the Earth's orbit.

The Apollo Project's purpose was to land a crewed flight on the moon. The project started in 1961 and ended in 1972. The first four flights tested the equipment used in the Program. Six of the other seven flights landed on the moon. The project encountered a major setback in 1967 during Apollo 1 when a cabin fire killed the entire crew during a prelaunch test. Apollo 7 was the first mission the carry a crew into space. Apollo 8 the first crewed spacecraft to successfully orbit the moon and return to Earth. Apollo 11 was the first spaceflight to land humans on the Moon. During Apollo 13, the mission was to achieve another lunar landing, but it was aborted after an oxygen tank in the service module failed. The following missions focused on staying longer periods of time on the moon and collecting data.