Historical photos of the lunar lander

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Today is the anniversary of the Apollo 9's completed 1969 mission to test the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) technology that would later bring Aldrin and Armstrong to the surface of the moon. LIFE magazine posted a series of images celebrating the LEM. The photo above left depicts a "moon landing enactment, 1967." (Conspiracy theorists, start your engines!) Above right, a wood LEM model from the late 1960s. And above, a LEM concept sketch from 1961 by aerospace engineer Dr. John C. Houbolt, champion of the Lunar Orbit Rendezvous approach to a moon landing where part of the lunar lander launches off from the moon at the end of the mission and connects with the orbiting spacecraft. "In Praise of the Lunar Module: From Models to the Moon"