Lunar orbit rendezvous (LOR) is a key concept for landing humans on the Moon and returning them to Earth and was first utilized for the Project Apollo missions in the 1960s and 1970s. In a LOR mission a main spacecraft and a smaller lunar module travel together into lunar orbit. The lunar module then independently descends to the lunar surface. After completion of the mission there, a part of it returns to lunar orbit and conducts a rendezvous with the main spacecraft. The main spacecraft then returns to Earth.
First mention of LOR dates back to 1916. It was proposed by Yuri Kondratyuk, a self-educated Ukrainian, who calculated that LOR was the most economical way of landing a human on the Moon. When NASA was looking to land astronauts on the Moon by the late 1960s, the idea was controversial, and after NASA's administrator, James Webb announced that Apollo would utilize this method, he was publicly criticized by President Kennedy's National Science Policy Advisor, Jerome Wiesner. As history has shown, the method worked, and allowed NASA to use only one Saturn V per lunar landing mission, something other landing options did not offer.
An unmanned lunar orbit rendezvous will be used by the Chinese Chang'e 5 lunar sample return mission scheduled in 2017.
Read more about Lunar Orbit Rendezvous: Apollo Mission Modes, Advantages and Disadvantages, Risks, Advocacy
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