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Lunar orbit rendezvous
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{{short description|Spaceflight maneuver}} [[File:Lunar orbit rendezvous.svg|thumb|Diagram of LOR]] '''Lunar orbit rendezvous''' ('''LOR''') is a process for landing humans on the Moon and returning them to Earth. It was utilized for the [[Apollo program]] missions in the 1960s and 1970s. In a LOR mission, a main spacecraft and a [[lunar lander]] travel to [[lunar orbit]]. The lunar lander then independently descends to the surface of the Moon, while the main spacecraft remains in lunar orbit. After completion of the mission there, the lander returns to lunar orbit to [[space rendezvous|rendezvous]] and re-[[docking and berthing of spacecraft|dock]] with the main spacecraft, then is discarded after transfer of crew and payload. Only the main spacecraft returns to Earth.<ref>{{YouTube|vB7AA7B9hTI|"Lunar Orbit Rendezvous" β 1968 β NASA Mission Planning and Analysis Division}}</ref> Lunar orbit rendezvous was first proposed in 1919 by Ukrainian engineer [[Yuri Kondratyuk]],{{sfnp|Harvey|2007|pp=6β7}} as the most economical way of sending a human on a round-trip journey to the Moon.{{sfnp|Wilford|1969|pp=41β48}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8056443.stm |title=Rendezvous around the Moon |author=BBC |date=18 May 2009}}</ref> The most famous example involved Project Apollo's [[command and service module]] (CSM) and [[lunar module]] (LM), where they were both sent to a translunar flight in a single rocket stack. However, variants where the landers and main spacecraft travel separately, such as the lunar landing plans proposed for [[Shuttle-Derived Heavy Lift Launch Vehicle]], [[Golden Spike Company|Golden Spike]] and the 2029/2030 [[Chinese crewed lunar lander|Chinese crewed effort]], are also considered to be lunar orbit rendezvous.
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