Project Pilgrim

The Project Pilgrim program was the USAF's second human spaceflight program. Pilgrim started as a successor of Project Liberty in 1959. The Pilgrim spacecraft carried a two-astronaut crew, at first. Subsequent versions of the Pilgrim were greatly expanded to carry more astronauts. It was conceived in 1959 during President Richard M. Nixon's administration as a two-person spacecraft that would be capable of various operations including the capability of landing on the Moon via direct ascent. Pilgrim was later dedicated to President John F. Kennedy's national goal for the 1960s of "landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth" in an address to Congress in 1961. Pilgrim is associated with Project Aphrodite, the Manned Orbital Laboratory (MOL), and the Manned Orbital Development System (MODS). 
Pilgrim's objective was the development of space travel techniques to support the Extended Pilgrim missions to land astronauts on the Moon. In doing so, it allowed the United States to catch up and overcome the lead in human spaceflight capability Germany had obtained in the early years of the Space Race. Extended Pilgrim was left free to pursue its prime mission without spending time developing these techniques.
All Pilgrim flights were launched from Launch Complex 19 (LC-19) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Their launch vehicles was the Titan III, a modified ICBM, Pilgrim was the first program to use the newly built Mission Control Center at the Houston Manned Spacecraft Center for flight control.
The astronaut corps that supported Project Pilgrim included the "Liberty Seven." Pilgrim was robust enough that the United States Air Force to use it for the Manned Orbital Laboratory (MOL) program. Pilgrim's chief designer, Michael Osgood, made detailed plans for cislunar and lunar landing missions in late 1959. He believed Pilgrim spacecraft could fly in lunar operations and cost less. In 1967, the USAF proposed another application for the Pilgrim capsule called "Big Pilgrim" that could have been used to shuttle up to 12 astronauts to the planned space stations in the Pilgrim Applications Project (PAP). Skylab was another such application that used existing spacecraft and hardware. When astronauts Frank Boone and Wally Sawyer landed their Pilgrim L-9 and walked on the lunar surface in 1967. The lunar landing missions continued for four years until 1971 when the American lunar effort shifted to the construction of lunar outposts. 
Overall, the Pilgrim program returned over 1,000 pounds (500 kg) of lunar rocks and soil to Earth, gravity contributing to the understanding of the Moon's composition and geological history. The program laid the foundation for NASA and the USAF's subsequent human spaceflight capability, and funded construction of its Johnson Space Center and Kennedy Space Center. Pilgrim also spurred advances in many areas of technology incidental to rocketry and human spaceflight, including avionics, telecommunications, and computers.
== List of missions ==
* Pilgrim 1. Launched April 1964 on Titan 2, unmanned booster orbital test; boilerplate spacecraft.
* Pilgrim 2. Launched January 1965 on Titan 2, unmanned suborbital test of spacecraft.
* Pilgrim 3. Launched March 1965 on Titan 2, manned orbital.
* Pilgrim 4. Launched June 1965 on Titan 2, 4-day manned orbital.
* Pilgrim L-1. Launched June 1965 on Titan 3C, first test flight of Titan 3C; unmanned lunar flyby.
* Pilgrim 5. Launched August 1965 on Titan 2, 8-day manned orbital.
* Pilgrim L-2. Launched October 1965 on Titan 3C, unmanned lunar flyby test; transtage exploded.
* Pilgrim 7. Launched December 1965 on Titan 2, 14-day manned orbital.
* Pilgrim 6. Launched December 1965 on Titan 2. Rendezvous with Pilgrim 7 (Agena target failed to orbit)
* Pilgrim L-3. Launched December 1965 on Titan 3C, unmanned lunar flyby.
* Pilgrim 8. Launched March 1966 on Titan 2/Atlas-Agena, Agena docking.
* Pilgrim 9. Launched June 1966 on Titan 2/Atlas-Agena. Agena docking.
* Pilgrim L-4. Launched June 1966 on Titan 2/Atlas-Agena, Agena docking.
* Pilgrim 10. Launched August 1966 on Titan 2/Atlas-Agena, LM docking.
* Pilgrim L-5. Launched August 1966 on Titan 3E, Titan 3E test; unmanned, failure.
* Pilgrim 11. Launched October 1966 on Titan 2/Atlas-Agena, LM docking.
* Pilgrim L-6. Launched November 1966 on Titan 3E, unmanned lunar orbiter.
* Pilgrim L-7. Launched January 1967 on Titan 3E, manned lunar orbiter.
* Pilgrim L-8. Launched April 1967 on Titan 3E/Titan 3D, manned earth orbit rendezvous, lunar orbit, LM descent.
* Pilgrim L-9. Launched July 1967 on Titan 3E/Titan 3D, first landing on the Moon.
* Pilgrim L-10. Launched Fall 1967.
* Pilgrim L-11. Launched Spring 1968.
* Pilgrim L-12. Launched Summer 1968.
* Pilgrim L-13. Launched Fall 1968.
* Pilgrim L-14. Launched Spring 1969.
* Pilgrim L-15. Launched Summer 1969.
* Pilgrim L-16. Launched Fall 1969.
* Pilgrim L-17. Launched Spring 1970.
* Pilgrim L-18. Launched Summer 1970.
* Pilgrim L-19. Launched Fall 1970.
* Pilgrim L-20. Launched Spring 1971.
Category:United States
Category:United States government
Category:Space projects
Category:Spacecraft