Apollo 9

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Mission emblem
Mission emblem Apollo 9
Mission dates
Mission: Apollo 9
COSPAR-ID : 1969-018A
Command module: CM-104
Service module: SM-104
Lunar Module: LM-3
Launcher: Saturn V , serial number SA-504
Call sign: CM: Gumdrop
LM: Spider
Crew: 3
Begin: March 3, 1969, 16:00:00  UTC
JD : 2440284.1666667
Starting place: Kennedy Space Center , LC-39A
Landing: March 13, 1969, 17:00:54 UTC
JD : 2440294.2089583
Landing place: Atlantic
23 ° 13 ′  N , 67 ° 59 ′  W
Flight duration: 10d 1h 0min 54s
Earth orbits: 151
Recovery ship: USS Guadalcanal
Team photo
Apollo 9 - v. l. No. James McDivitt, David Scott, Russell Schweickart
Apollo 9 - v. l. No. James McDivitt , David Scott , Russell Schweickart
◄ Before / After ►
Apollo 8
(manned) 		Apollo 10
(manned)

Apollo 9 was a manned space mission under the Apollo program . Their goal was a test flight of the lunar module under real conditions in earth orbit, in which the rendezvous and docking maneuvers were rehearsed.

Mission planning and crew

In the early planning of the Apollo program, it was envisaged that the second manned flight (called Mission D ) would conduct a test of the lunar module in earth orbit, using two Saturn IB rockets . On December 22, 1966, NASA announced the crew for it. As commander was James McDivitt selected already the second Geminiflug , Gemini 4 , the command had occupied. The pilot of the command module was to be David Scott , who had completed a space flight with Gemini 8 . The space newcomer Russell Schweickart , one of the few civilians among the Apollo astronauts, was nominated to pilot the lunar module.

The replacement crew consisted of Tom Stafford as the commander, John Young as the pilot of the Apollo command module and Eugene Cernan as the pilot of the lunar module . All three had already done one or two Gemini flights.

After the Apollo 1 catastrophe on January 27, 1967, all planning was temporarily suspended.

On November 20, 1967, after the successful unmanned flight of Apollo 4 , NASA announced that McDivitt's crew would continue to do the second manned flight, called Apollo 8 . The new Saturn V rocket would be used for the first time in a manned manner.

The previously planned replacement team has now been assigned to Apollo 7 . As a new substitute, that of Borman's Mission E moved up: Charles Conrad , Richard Gordon and Alan Bean , with Bean replacing Clifton Williams , who had been killed in a plane crash. According to the previously applied rotation principle, this replacement crew would have been the crew of Apollo 11 , the first flight for which a moon landing was planned.

The support team (support crew) consisted of Edgar Mitchell , Fred Haise and Alfred Worden . On July 12, 1968 Haise moved to the substitute team of Mission E and was replaced by Jack Lousma . When Mitchell was nominated as the replacement pilot of the lunar module of Mission F ( Apollo 10 ) on November 13, Stuart Roosa moved up.

During the summer of 1968 it became apparent that the lunar module would not be ready for use in time. In August, NASA decided , for the time being without informing the public, that Mission E could be brought forward and that Borman's team should orbit the moon as Mission C.

After Mission C (Apollo 7) was successful, NASA finally decided on November 10th to assign Borman's team the first manned flight to the moon. This mission has now been numbered as Apollo 8 . The flight of McDivitt, Scott and Schweickart was now running as Apollo 9 and was delayed until 1969. Mission E was canceled without replacement.

The individual parts of the rocket, which were actually planned for Mission E, were delivered between May and September 1968. On January 3, 1969, the Saturn V could be rolled to launch pad 39A. The rocket carried the serial number AS-504, the command module CSM-104 and the lunar module LM-3.

begin

The Saturn V took off from Kennedy Space Center , Florida on March 3, 1969 at 16:00 UTC . In order to simplify communication, the command capsule and ferry were given their own nicknames for the first time: Gumdrop for the command module and Spider for the lunar module . Thus, the tradition that had been interrupted since Gemini 3 was continued that astronauts were allowed to give their spaceships their own names.

Liaison spokespeople ( CapCom ) during the flight were the substitute crew Conrad, Gordon and Bean, as well as Stuart Roosa and Alfred Worden from the support crew and Ronald Evans .

In earth orbit

Apollo 9 with docked lunar module in orbit of the earth

After reaching earth orbit, all maneuvers were carried out as planned for the real moon landing of Apollo 11 . At this point the lunar module was still in the third stage of the Saturn rocket . The top formed the unit of the Apollo service module and the command module ( CSM ). The CSM detached itself from the rocket stage, turned 180 degrees and docked with its nose on the lunar module (LM). Now the composite could move away from the rocket stage. This maneuver was over three hours after take-off.

The third stage of Saturn V, the S-IVB, was re-ignited to test its systems and placed in orbit around the sun.

On the third day of the flight, first Schweickart, then McDivitt, transferred from the Apollo command module to the lunar module. This was the first time space travelers had moved from one spacecraft to another through a tunnel. Schweickart was suffering from space sickness at the time, so the program had to be cut. However, there was still the first television broadcast from inside the lander. Finally, the engines of the lander were tested. Without separating the two spacecraft, the engines ran for six minutes.

The first spacecraft work of the Apollo program was scheduled for the next day, March 6, 1969 . McDivitt and Schweickart climbed through the tunnel a second time into the lunar module. Schweickart left the ferry through the outer hatch, only secured with a nylon rope. This Extra Vehicular Activity (EVA) lasted 47 minutes, planned over two hours, whereby Schweickart should have worked his way to the hatch of the Apollo command capsule to simulate the transfer in free space. However, this part had to be omitted.

At the same time Scott opened the hatch of the command capsule and leaned into space (see picture opposite), but was still connected to the spaceship's life support systems. So Scott got to his EVA after all, which was planned for Gemini 8 but had to be canceled.

On the fifth day of the flight, the lunar module should finally maneuver itself. McDivitt and Schweickart separated the ferry from the mother ship and moved up to 180 km from the Apollo spacecraft. After about four hours, the descent stage was dropped and the ascent stage detonated to carry out the rendezvous with the Apollo spacecraft. 6 hours and 22 minutes after the breakup, Spider re-docked with Gumdrop. However, this was not the first docking of two manned spacecraft in orbit, as Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 had succeeded in this first two months earlier.

McDivitt and Schweickart climbed back into the command module with Scott, and the lunar module was dropped. The lunar module's ascent engine was ignited remotely and burned until the fuel ran out. Spider remained in orbit and did not burn up in the atmosphere until 1981, while the descent stage re-entered the atmosphere in the spring of 1969.

landing

The remaining time in orbit was devoted to Earth observation. The crew brought back 1,373 usable photos. Due to bad weather in the landing area, the ignition of the brake rocket occurred one orbit later than planned. Ten days after take-off, on March 13 at 17:00 UTC , Apollo 9 landed safely in the Atlantic and was recovered by the USS Guadalcanal . In contrast to Apollo 7 and Apollo 8, the landing capsule drifted upwards with the tip and did not have to stand up first.

Whereabouts of the spacecraft

The command capsule was on display at the Michigan Space and Science Center in Jackson , Michigan until it was closed in April 2004 and is now in the San Diego Air & Space Museum in San Diego (CA).

Significance for the Apollo program

Apollo 9 was a complete success. With the lunar module and the Apollo space suit , the last pieces of equipment that were necessary for a moon landing were now also tested in space . All rendezvous and coupling maneuvers were also tried out. The space sickness from which Schweickart had suffered had led to the shortening of the outboard work, but this risk was considered manageable. The nausea only ever occurred at the beginning of a space flight, so an astronaut suffering from space sickness should have recovered by the time they arrived on the moon.

There were voices within NASA that the next mission, Apollo 10, would attempt a manned moon landing; the original plan was retained, which was expressly confirmed again on March 24, 1969. Then the next flight, Apollo 10, should combine the tests of Apollo 8 and Apollo 9: a moon flight with a test of the ferry in lunar orbit.

Web links

Commons : Apollo 9  - collection of images, videos and audio files