NASA

45 a
The first photograph shows the landing of the LEM (Lunar Excursion Module) on the lunar surface.
The second shows the excursion of two astronauts on the lunar surface near the LEM.
The third shows the return to Earth in the Command Module after rendezvous with the ascent stage of the LEM in lunar orbit, transfer of the crew in the Command Module and jettison of the LEM.

These configurations by Artist Sam Lyons were used in a presentation to the Seattle IAS (Institute of Aerospace Sciences) offices by NASA Manned Spacecraft Center Director Robert Gilruth and Lee McMillion on August 6, 1962.

“In the early days, planners had envisioned landing on the Moon with a large, tall spacecraft called the Apollo tailsitter. Launching the tailsitter on a ‘direct ascent’ would take an absolutely titanic rocket called the Nova. After considerable study, engineers concluded that only a Saturn-series rocket could be developed in time to meet Kennedy’s deadline.
So they envisioned the tailsitter into Earth orbit empty, then launching a second rocket carrying all its fuel. With the load thus divided in two smaller parts, the Nova would not be needed and two Saturn rockets could do the job. The mission mode was called Earth Orbit Rendezvous and was the favorite at NASA. But there was a third, very different option that would split the tailsitter idea into two spaceships, an orbiting capsule and a specialized small lander.
In this scenario, the lander could be made lightweight for the light lunar gravity, reducing the overall weight so much that both ships could be carried up by just one Saturn V. The trick was that the two ships would have to rendezvous over the Moon when the man in the lander came back up from the surface. Rendezvous was considered difficult and dangerous. [...] However, if rendezvous were safe enough to attempt over the Moon, L.O.R. (Lunar Orbit Rendezvous) would save a tremendous amount of effort and resources” (Reynolds, pp. 80-81).

Dr. John Houbolt, member of Lunar Mission Steering Group at Langley Research Center, was convinced that L.O.R. was not only the most feasible way to make it to the Moon before the decade was out, it was the only way. Writing a letter directly to NASA associate administrator Robert Seamans in November 1961, he eventually convinced NASA. The first major group to change its opinion in favor of LOR was Robert Gilruth’s Space Task Group, which was still located at Langley but was soon to move to Houston as the Manned Spacecraft Center. The second to come over was the Von Braun team at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. NASA administrator James Webb approved L.O.R. in July 1962.

45 b
[NASA caption] Mariner 2 spacecraft shown in launch position with solar panels folded. After launch panels are extended, spacecraft is oriented towards Sun and solar cells on panel convert sunlight to electricity. Plastic extension on panel, right, compensates for additional segment on left panel. Panels must be same size to equalize pressure on spacecraft from solar winds. An imbalance of pressure would push spacecraft off course.

“Mariner 2 became the first successful mission to another planet when it flew by Venus on December 14, 1962. The spacecraft made a number of discoveries about the planet and marked another first by measuring the solar wind, a constant stream of charged particles flying outward from the Sun” (https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/mariner-2/).

45 c
President John F. Kennedy, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson and Marshall Space Flight Center Director Dr. Wernher von Braun at the Redstone Arsenal Airfield, September 11, 1962. Kennedy and Johnson visited the Marshall Center to tour national space facilities. Kennedy committed to reaching the Moon, an initiative he’d launched the previous year, before anyone was certain how it would be possible. The man who had the expertise to design a Moon rocket was Von Braun.

The following day on September 12, 1962, Kennedy gave a memorable address at Rice University making the case for why the United States should go to the Moon with the Apollo program.

“We choose to go to the Moon. We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.”
President Kennedy (Rice University, September 12, 1962)