Flight control of the Apollo lunar-landing mission

The purpose of the paper is to provide the r e a d e r with insight into the functions and activities c a r r i e d out in the Mission Control Center and into the procedures used for controlling the Apollo lunar-landing mission.To provide the proper background, the f i r s t part of the paper consists of a functional description of the worldwide tracking and data acquisition network, of the Mission Control Center, and of their capabilities in providing the necessary data from the spacecraft and flightcrew to the flight control team in the Mission Control Center.The flight control organization and the technical disciplines involved a r e discussed.A detailed description of the flight control activities and of the data and information transf e r r e d between the flightcrew and the ground controllers is given for particular phases of the mission.Emphasis is placed on the navigation and guidance aspects, but the systems-monitoring and consumables-analysis activities a r e also discussed.