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Apollo program
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==Name== The program was named after [[Apollo]], the Greek god of light, music, and the Sun, by NASA manager [[Abe Silverstein]], who later said, "I was naming the spacecraft like I'd name my baby."<ref>[[#Murray & Cox|Murray & Cox 1989]], p. 55</ref> Silverstein chose the name at home one evening, early in 1960, because he felt "Apollo riding his chariot across the Sun was appropriate to the grand scale of the proposed program".<ref name="pressrelease">{{Cite press release |last=Kelsey |first=Charles E. |date=July 14, 1969 |title=1969 Apollo 11 News Release |url=https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/lewis-apollo-contributions-press-release-1969.pdf?emrc=bed0c6 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250206053900/https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/lewis-apollo-contributions-press-release-1969.pdf?emrc=bed0c6 |archive-date=February 6, 2025 |access-date=April 8, 2025 |publisher=[[Glenn Research Center|Lewis Research Center]] |id=69-36 |location=Cleveland, OH }}</ref> The context of this was that the program focused at its beginning mainly on developing an advanced crewed spacecraft, the [[Apollo command and service module]], succeeding the [[Mercury program]]. A [[lunar landing]] became the focus of the program only in 1961.<ref name="Nast 2013 t554">{{Cite magazine |last=Portree |first=David S. F. |date=September 2, 2013 |title=Project Olympus (1962) |url=https://www.wired.com/2013/09/project-olympus-1962/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250323022422/https://www.wired.com/2013/09/project-olympus-1962/ |archive-date=March 23, 2025 |access-date=October 12, 2023 |magazine=[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]] }}</ref> Thereafter [[Project Gemini]] instead followed the Mercury program to test and study advanced crewed spaceflight technology.
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