The APOLLO program was a former NASA program that ran from 1961 to 1972. It was the third United States human spaceflight program and was responsible for the first crewed landing on the Moon in 1969. The program was named after the Greek god APOLLO, and was designed to land astronauts on the Moon and bring them safely back to Earth. The program achieved its goal of landing the first humans on the Moon with the APOLLO 11 mission in July 1969.