Portal:Spaceflight/Selected article/Week 35 2010

Lunar orbit rendezvous is a key concept for human landing on the Moon and returning to Earth.

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, 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 Russian, who calculated that LOR was the most economical way of landing a human on the Moon.

LOR was used by the Apollo missions for human spaceflight to the Moon.

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