Manama / Ajman year 1969 stamps Space / Apollo Program Block MNH**
The Apollo program was a spaceflight initiative conducted by NASA, the United States’ space agency, during the 1960s and 1970s. Its primary goal was to land humans on the Moon and bring them safely back to Earth. The program was initiated by President John F. Kennedy in 1961, in response to the Soviet Union’s early successes in space exploration, including the launch of the first artificial satellite, Sputnik, in 1957, and the first human, Yuri Gagarin, in space in 1961. The Apollo program consisted of a series of crewed missions, each designated with a number. Apollo 1 was originally intended to be the first crewed mission but tragically ended in a cabin fire during a pre-launch test in 1967, resulting in the deaths of astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee. Following this incident, the first successful crewed mission was Apollo 7 in 1968. Apollo 11, launched on July 16, 1969, carried astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins. On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first human to set foot on the Moon, followed by Buzz Aldrin. Armstrong famously declared, “That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.” Apollo 11 returned safely to Earth on Ju
