Apollo 4

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Mission emblem
Emblem of the Apollo program
Mission dates
Mission: Apollo 4
COSPAR-ID : 1967-113
Command module: CM 017
Service module: SM 017
Launcher: Saturn-V
serial number SA-501
Crew: unmanned
Begin: November 9, 1967
12:00:01 UTC
Starting place: Kennedy Space Center
LC-39A
Landing: November 9, 1967
20:37:00 UTC
Landing place: 30 ° 6'N, 172 ° 32'W
Flight duration: 8 h 36 min 59 s
Earth orbits: 3
Recovery ship: USS Bennington
◄ Before / After ►
Apollo 1
(manned) 		Apollo 5
(unmanned)
Next manned mission:
Apollo 7

Apollo 4 was the first, as yet unmanned, test flight of the Saturn V rocket with the Apollo spacecraft . The launch took place on November 9, 1967 at 12:00:01 UTC from launch pad LC-39A of the Kennedy Space Center .

Apollo 4 on the launch pad

Apollo 4 was first placed in an orbit approximately 190 km high. After two orbits around the earth, the third stage of the Saturn V was re-ignited, later also the engine of the Apollo service module, in order to bring it up to a distance of 18,000 km above the earth's surface. Apollo 4 turned and re-ignited the engines to return to Earth at high speed. On the same day the spacecraft hit the Atlantic and was recovered by the USS Bennington about 16 km from the planned landing site . All tests were successful.

Two cameras were attached to the second stage S-II, which filmed the stage separation of the S-IC and the dropping of the intermediate ring as well as the separation from the S-IVB and its ignition. The cameras ran at four times the speed and thus allowed a slow-motion display of the processes involved in the step separation. The film cassettes were separated from the step after exposure and landed on parachutes in the Atlantic, where they could then be recovered.

The flight carried the internal project number AS-501.

After three astronauts were killed during a test in the Apollo spacecraft on January 27, 1967 , their mission AS-204 was retrospectively named Apollo 1 . In April 1967 it was decided that the next flight under the Apollo program would be called Apollo 4. For the previous launches, the project designations AS-201 (February 26, 1966), AS-202 (August 25, 1966) and AS-203 (July 5, 1966) remained, as they took place before Apollo 1. The names Apollo 2 and Apollo 3 have never been officially used.

Web links

Commons : Apollo 4  - collection of images, videos and audio files