Editing Apollo program (section)

==Astronauts==
{{main|List of Apollo astronauts}}
[[File:Apollo 1 Prime Crew - GPN-2000-001159.jpg|thumb|left|[[Apollo 1]] crew: [[Ed White (astronaut)|Ed White]], command pilot [[Gus Grissom]], and [[Roger B. Chaffee|Roger Chaffee]]]]

NASA's director of flight crew operations during the Apollo program was [[Deke Slayton|Donald K. "Deke" Slayton]], one of the original [[Mercury Seven]] astronauts who was medically grounded in September 1962 due to a [[heart murmur]]. Slayton was responsible for making all Gemini and Apollo crew assignments.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/slayton.html |title=Astronaut Bio: Deke Slayton 6/93 |publisher=NASA |date=June 1993 |access-date=August 1, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060929001149/http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/slayton.html |archive-date=September 29, 2006 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

Thirty-two astronauts were assigned to fly missions in the Apollo program. Twenty-four of these left Earth's orbit and flew around the Moon between December 1968 and December 1972 (three of them twice). Half of the 24 walked on the Moon's surface, though none of them returned to it after landing once. One of the moonwalkers was a trained geologist. Of the 32, [[Gus Grissom]], [[Ed White (astronaut)|Ed White]], and [[Roger B. Chaffee|Roger Chaffee]] were killed during a ground test in preparation for the [[Apollo 1]] mission.<ref name="missionNumbers" />

[[File:apollo 11.jpg|thumb|right|Apollo 11 crew, from left: Commander [[Neil Armstrong]], Command Module Pilot [[Michael Collins (astronaut)|Michael Collins]], and Lunar Module Pilot [[Buzz Aldrin]]]]
The Apollo astronauts were chosen from the Project Mercury and Gemini veterans, plus from two later astronaut groups. All missions were commanded by Gemini or Mercury veterans. Crews on all development flights (except the Earth orbit CSM development flights) through the first two landings on Apollo 11 and [[Apollo 12]], included at least two (sometimes three) Gemini veterans. [[Harrison Schmitt]], a geologist, was the first [[NASA Astronaut Group 4|NASA scientist astronaut]] to fly in space, and landed on the Moon on the last mission, Apollo 17. Schmitt participated in the [[geology of the moon|lunar geology]] training of all of the Apollo landing crews.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/schmitt-hh.html |title=Astronaut Bio: Harrison Schmitt |publisher=NASA |date=December 1994 |access-date=September 12, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110317220959/http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/schmitt-hh.html |archive-date=March 17, 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

NASA awarded all 32 of these astronauts its highest honor, the [[NASA Distinguished Service Medal|Distinguished Service Medal]], given for "distinguished service, ability, or courage", and personal "contribution representing substantial progress to the NASA mission". The medals were awarded posthumously to Grissom, White, and Chaffee in 1969, then to the crews of all missions from [[Apollo 8]] onward. The crew that flew the first Earth orbital test mission [[Apollo 7]], [[Wally Schirra|Walter M. Schirra]], [[Donn Eisele]], and [[Walter Cunningham]], were awarded the lesser [[NASA Exceptional Service Medal]], because of discipline problems with the [[Flight controller#FLIGHT|flight director]]'s orders during their flight. In October 2008, the NASA Administrator decided to award them the Distinguished Service Medals. For Schirra and Eisele, this was posthumously.<ref name="Apollo Crew Honored 2008" >{{cite web |url=http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-102008a.html |title=First Apollo flight crew last to be honored |last=Pearlman |first=Robert Z. |date=October 20, 2008 |website=collectSPACE |publisher=Robert Pearlman |access-date=June 12, 2014}}</ref>