AS-202

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Mission emblem
Emblem of the Apollo program
Mission dates
Mission: Apollo saturn 202
COSPAR-ID : APST202
Command module: CM 011
Service module: SM 011
Launcher: Saturn IB
serial number SA-202
Crew: no
Begin: August 25, 1966
17:15:32 UTC
Starting place: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station
LC-34
Landing: August 25, 1966
18:48:34 UTC
Landing place: 16 ° 7'N 168 ° 54'E
Flight duration: 1h 33min 02s
Earth orbits: suborbital
Recovery ship: USS Hornet
◄ Before / After ►
AS-203 Apollo 4

AS-202 (also SA-202 called) was the third unmanned test flight of the Apollo spacecraft of NASA .

preparation

After the largely successful test flight of AS-201 , the second flight should have a longer duration and attempt to ignite the Apollo engine multiple times. A shallower re-entry angle was also provided so that the heat shield would be exposed to higher temperatures.

This was also the first flight of the Apollo Guidance Computer and the fuel cells in the Apollo spacecraft.

The Apollo spacecraft had the serial number 011. It largely corresponded to the copy 012, with which the first manned Apollo flight should take place. Since the spaceship was not available in time, the flight AS-203, originally planned as the third test, was brought forward. During this flight, which took place in July 1966, the Saturn rocket was tested, so that no functional spaceship was necessary.

The individual parts of the rocket arrived by sea: the second stage on January 29, 1966, the first stage on February 7, and the instrument cluster on February 21. On July 2, 1966, AS-202 was fully assembled on launch pad 34 of Cape Canaveral Air Force Base .

Start of AS-202

Flight history

The countdown had to be interrupted four times before AS-202 took off on August 25, 1966 at 17:15:32 UTC. The first stage worked about two minutes and brought the missile to 35 miles. The second stage burned for seven minutes and was cut off at a height of 216 km. Shortly afterwards the Apollo engine was ignited and worked for 3 minutes and 35 seconds. This brought the spaceship to its maximum altitude of 1128 km.

25 minutes later, the Apollo engine was ignited three times in a row to investigate the behavior under these circumstances. This brought the spaceship to a re-entry speed of 8.9 km / s, after which the command module was separated from the service module. The re-entry angle into the atmosphere was chosen to be very flat, so that the Apollo landing capsule sank to an altitude of 66 km, but then moved away again to an altitude of 81 km before it finally fell.

AS-202 landed in the Pacific near Wake Island at 18:48 UTC , missing the target point by 370 km. A rescue crew aircraft reached the landing point 36 minutes later. For the next three hours, the landing capsule was secured with a flotation collar, which required several attempts. It took the salvage ship USS Hornet eight hours to reach the landing site. The landing capsule had meanwhile drifted to the position 16 ° 4'N 168 ° 39'E.

Impact on the Apollo program

Essentially, the flight was successful. The large deviation from the calculated landing point was attributed to an entry angle that was too small. In addition, the air resistance of the Apollo landing capsule in the supersonic range had been incorrectly estimated. The measurements in the wind tunnel were apparently insufficient.

This third flight of the Saturn IB completed the unmanned preparatory phase of the Apollo program. The next flight was to take place under the designation AS-204 in late 1966 or early 1967. A manned mission of about a week in Earth orbit was planned. During the preparation for this flight, the selected astronauts Grissom , White and Chaffee were killed in a ground test, which temporarily brought the Apollo program to a standstill. This mission was retrospectively renamed Apollo 1 .

The Apollo landing capsule can now be viewed on the USS Hornet , which has been converted into a museum ship, in Alameda .

Web links

Commons : AS-202  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files