# What \[if\] Apollo 11 failed?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-apollo-11-failed/504075>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 24, 2009, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-apollo-11-failed/504075 "2009-07-24T02:38:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 3

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![MrFloppy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/43a26b/32.png) [@MrFloppy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrFloppy)\
**Post date:** [July 26, 2009, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-apollo-11-failed/504075/41 "2009-07-26T15:36:14Z")

</div>

Not much to add . 12 and 13 were both ready to go in 1969.

As it happened, 12 was launched in November 1969 and 13 in April of 1970. Had 11 failed, 12 would have gone up sooner and had that failed, 13 would have been launched before the end of 1969 fulfilling Kennedy’s wish, umm…maybe…

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Cliffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)\
**Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-apollo-11-failed/504075/42 "2009-07-27T16:48:28Z")

</div>

> [@Shoeless](#):
>
> In an article I read the other day about the anniversary of the moon landing, one of the NASA guys who worked on the Apollo missions said that if it hadn’t been for the Apollo 1 fire, they most likely _wouldn’t_ have made it to the moon by the end of the sixties. Tragic as it was, they learned a hell of lot from it.

Walt Cunningham (who flew on Apollo 7) said the same thing in his book, **The All-American Boys**.

–Cliffy

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-apollo-11-failed/504075.md?page=2)