Apollo 11 insignia. At Scheer's suggestion, the CM was named "Columbia" after "Columbiad", the giant cannon that launched a spacecraft (also from Florida) in Jules Verne's 1865 novel "From the Earth to the Moon". It also referenced Columbia, a historical name of the United States. The astronaut had personal preference kits (PPKs), small bags containing personal items of significance that they wanted to take with them on the mission. Five PPKs were carried on Apollo 11: three (one for each astronaut) were stowed on "Columbia" before launch, and two on "Eagle". Neil Armstrong's LM PPK contained a piece of wood from the
We choose to go to the Moon a week after Kennedy's assassination. The idea of a joint Moon mission was abandoned after Kennedy's death, but the Apollo Project became a memorial to him. His goal was fulfilled in July 1969, with the successful Apollo 11 Moon landing. This accomplishment remains an enduring legacy of Kennedy's speech, but his deadline demanded a necessarily narrow focus, and there was no indication of what should be done next once it was achieved. Apollo did not usher in an era of lunar exploration, and no further missions were sent to the Moon after Apollo 17 in 1972. Subsequent planned Apollo missions