Apollo 9

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Apollo 9
Mission insignia
Mission statistics
Mission name	Apollo 9
Command Module	CM-104 callsign Gumdrop mass 26,801 kg
Service Module	SM-104
Lunar Module	LM-3 callsign Spider mass 14,575 kg
Crew size	3
Booster	Saturn V SA-504
Launch pad	LC 39A Kennedy Space Center Florida, USA
Launch date	March 3, 1969 16:00:00 UTC
Landing	March 13, 1969 17:00:54 UTC 23°15′N 67°56′W / 23.25°N 67.933°W / 23.25; -67.933 (Apollo 9 splashdown)
Mission duration	10 d 01 h 00 m 54 s
Crew photo
Left to right: McDivitt, Scott, Schweickart
Related missions
Previous mission Subsequent mission Apollo 8 Apollo 10

Apollo 9 was the first manned flight of the Command/Service Module(CSM) along with the Lunar Module (LM). Its three-person crew, consisting of Mission Commander Jim McDivitt, Command Module Pilot David Scott, and Lunar Module Pilot Rusty Schweickart tested several aspects critical to landing on the moon, including the LM engines, backpack life support systems, navigation systems, and docking maneuvers. The mission was the second manned launch of a Saturn V rocket, and was the third manned mission of the Apollo Program.

After launching on March 3, 1969, the crew spent ten days in low Earth orbit. They performed the first manned flight of a LM, the first docking and extraction of a LM, a two man spacewalk, and the second docking of two manned spacecraft. The mission proved the LM worthy of manned spaceflight. Further tests on the Apollo 10 mission would prepare the LM for its ultimate goal, landing on the Moon.

Contents 1 Crew 1.1 Backup crew 1.2 Support crew 1.3 Flight directors 2 Mission parameters 2.1 LM - CSM docking 2.2 EVA 3 Original mission profile 4 Mission highlights 5 Mission insignia and spacecraft names 6 Summary of maneuvers 7 Pictures 8 Spacecraft location 9 See also 10 Notes 11 References 12 External links

[edit] Crew

Position	Astronaut
Commander	James A. McDivitt Second spaceflight
Command Module Pilot	David R. Scott Second spaceflight
Lunar Module Pilot	Russell L. Schweickart First spaceflight
Like Apollo 8, the crew of Apollo 9 consisted of two Gemini veterans and one rookie.

[edit] Backup crew

Position	Astronaut
Commander	Charles Conrad, Jr
Command Module Pilot	Richard F. Gordon, Jr.
Lunar Module Pilot	Alan L. Bean
The backup crew became the prime crew on Apollo 12.

Originally Clifton Williams was the lunar module pilot for the backup crew. He died on October 5, 1967, in a T-38 crash. His spot was given to Alan Bean. Later, when the backup crew flew Apollo 12, a fourth star was added to their mission patch in remembrance of him.

[edit] Support crew

• Fred W. Haise, Jr
• Jack R. Lousma
• Edgar D. Mitchell
• Alfred M. Worden

[edit] Flight directors

• Gene Kranz, White team
• Gerry Griffin, Gold team
• Pete Frank, Orange team

[edit] Mission parameters

• Mass: CSM 26,801 kg; LM 14,575 kg
• Perigee: 189.5 km
• Apogee: 192.4 km
• Inclination: 32.57°
• Period: 88.64 min

[edit] LM - CSM docking

• Undocked: March 7, 1969 - 12:39:36 UTC
• Re-docked:March 7, 1969 - 19:02:26 UTC

[edit] EVA

• Schweickart - EVA - LM forward hatch
  • Start: March 6, 1969, 16:45:00 UTC
  • End: March 6, 1969, 17:52:00 UTC
  • Duration: 1 hour, 07 minutes
• Scott - Standup EVA - CM side hatch
  • Start: March 6, 1969, 17:01:00 UTC
  • End: March 6, 1969, 18:02:00 UTC
  • Duration: 1 hour, 01 minute

[edit] Original mission profile

In April 1966, McDivitt, Scott, and Schweickart were selected as the backup crew to Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee for the planned first manned Earth orbital test flight of the Apollo Command/Service Module (CSM), designated AS-204 expected to fly in late 1966. This was to be followed by a second similar flight, AS-205, to be crewed by Wally Schirra, Walter Cunningham, and Donn Eisele.

However, delays in the CSM development pushed AS-204 into 1967. By December 1966, the original AS-205 mission was cancelled, Schirra's crew was named as Grissom's backup, and McDivitt's crew was promoted to prime crew for a new second mission, to fly the complete Apollo spacecraft, launching the CSM and Lunar Module (LM) on two separate Saturn IB vehicles into a low Earth orbit. They immediately began training for this flight, designated AS-205/208, expected to occur in late 1967.^[1]

On January 27, 1967, Grissom's crew were conducting a launch-pad test for their planned February 21 mission, which they named Apollo 1, when a fire broke out in the cabin, killing all three men and putting an eighteen-month hold on the manned program while the Command Module was redesigned for safety.

As it turned out, a 1967 launch of AS-205/208 would have been impossible even absent the Apollo 1 accident, as problems with the LM delayed its first unmanned test flight until January 1968. NASA was able to use the eighteen-month hiatus to catch up with development and unmanned testing of the LM and the Saturn V Moon launch vehicle.

By October 1967, planning for manned flights resumed, with Apollo 7 being the first Earth orbit CSM flight (now known as the C mission) in October 1968 given to Schirra's crew, and McDivitt's mission (now known as the D Mission) following as Apollo 8 in December 1968, using a single Saturn V instead of the two Saturn IBs. This would be followed by a higher Earth orbit flight (E Mission), to be crewed by Frank Borman, Michael Collins, and William Anders in early 1969.

However, continued LM production problems meant that the D Mission would not be able to fly until the spring of 1969, so NASA officials created another mission for Apollo 8 using the Saturn V to launch only the CSM on the first manned flight to orbit the Moon, and the E Mission was cancelled as unnecessary. Since McDivitt's crew had trained for the first LM mission, and he expressed the personal desire to fly it, the Borman and McDivitt crews were swapped, and the D mission became Apollo 9.

The crew swap also affected who would be the first crew to land on the Moon; when the crews for Apollo 8 and 9 were swapped, their backup crews were also swapped. Since the rule of thumb was for backup crews to fly as prime crew three missions later, this put Neil Armstrong's crew (Borman's backup) in position for the first landing mission Apollo 11 instead of Pete Conrad's crew, who made the second landing on Apollo 12.

[edit] Mission highlights

Apollo 9 was the first space test of the complete Apollo spacecraft, including the third critical piece of Apollo hardware - the lunar module. It was also the first space docking with an internal crew transfer. For ten days, the astronauts put all three Apollo vehicles through their paces in Earth orbit, including an undocking and redocking of the lunar lander with the command module, just as astronauts would in lunar orbit. Apollo 9 gave proof that the Apollo spacecraft were up to the task of orbital rendezvous and docking.

For this and all subsequent Apollo flights, the crews were allowed to name their own spacecraft (the last spacecraft to have been named was Gemini 3). The gangly lunar module was named Spider, and the command module was labeled Gumdrop because of the blue wrapping in which the craft arrived at Kennedy Space Center.

Schweickart and Scott performed a spacewalk (EVA) — Schweickart checked out the new Apollo spacesuit, the first to have its own life support system rather than being dependent on an umbilical connection to the spacecraft, while Scott filmed him from the command module hatch. Schweickart was due to carry out a more extensive set of activities to test the suit, and demonstrate that it was possible for astronauts to perform an EVA from the lunar module to the command module in an emergency, but as he had been suffering from space sickness the extra tests were scratched.

McDivitt and Schweickart later test-flew the LM, and practiced separation and docking maneuvers in Earth orbit. They flew the LM up to 111 miles (179 km) from Gumdrop, using the engine on the descent stage to propel them originally, before jettisoning it and using the ascent stage to return. This test flight represented the first flight of a manned spacecraft that was not equipped to reenter the Earth's atmosphere.

The splashdown point was 23 deg 15 min N, 67 deg 56 min W, 180 miles (290 km) east of Bahamas and within sight of the recovery ship USS Guadalcanal.

The command module was displayed at the Michigan Space and Science Center, Jackson, Michigan until April 2004 when the center closed. In May 2004, it was moved to the San Diego Aerospace Museum. The LM ascent stage orbit decayed on October 23, 1981, the LM descent stage (1969-018D) orbit decayed March 22, 1969. The S-IVB stage J-2 engine was restarted after Lunar Module extraction and propelled the stage into solar orbit by burning to depletion.

The crew sang the song "Happy Birthday to You" on March 8, 1969.

[edit] Mission insignia and spacecraft names

The circular patch shows a drawing of a Saturn V rocket with the letters USA on it. To its right, an Apollo CSM is shown next to an LM, with the CSM's nose pointed at the "front door" of the LM rather than at its top docking port. The CSM is trailing rocket fire in a circle. The crew's names are along the top edge of the circle, with APOLLO IX at the bottom. The "D" in McDivitt's name is filled with red to mark that this was the "D mission" in the alphabetic sequence of pre-lunar landing missions. The patch was designed by Allen Stevens of Rockwell International.^[2]

For the first time since the first manned Gemini mission, the astronauts were allowed to name their spacecraft. This came about to avoid confusion when dealing with two separate craft flying at the same time. The crew dubbed the lunar module Spider for its buglike appearance, and the command module Gumdrop because of its shape.

[edit] Summary of maneuvers

T + Time	Event	Burn Time	Delta-Velocity	Orbit
T + 00:00:00	Lift-off
T + 00:02:14.34	S-IC center engine cut-off	141 s
T + 00:02:42.76	S-IC engine cut-off	169 s
T + 00:02:45.16	S-II ignition
T + 00:03:13.5	S-II skirt separation
T + 00:03:18.3	LES jettison
T + 00:08:56.22	S-II cut-off
T + 00:08:57	S-II cutoff + separation, S-IVB ignition
T + 00:11:04.66	S-IVB cutoff + orbital insertion	127.4 s		191.3 × 189.5 km
T + 02:41:16	CSM/S-IVB separation
T + 03:01:59.3	CSM/LM docking
T + 04:08:09	Spacecraft/S-IVB separation
T + 05:59:01.07	First Service Propulsion System (SPS) test	5.1 s	+10.4 m/s	234.1 × 200.7 km
T + 22:13:04.07	Second SPS test	110 s	+259.2 m/s	351.5 × 199.5 km
T + 25:17:39.27	Third SPS test	281.6 s	+782.6 m/s	503.4 × 202.6 km
T + 28:24:41.37	Fourth SPS test	28.2 s	-914.5 m/s	502.8 × 202.4 km
T + 49:41:34.46	First DPS test	369.7 s	-530.1 m/s	499.3 × 202.2 km
T + 54:26:12.27	Fifth SPS test	43.3 s	-175.6 m/s	239.3 × 229.3 km
T + 92:39:36	CSM/LM undocking
T + 93:02:54	CSM separation maneuver	10.9 s	-1.5 m/s
T + 93:47:35.4	LM Descent Propulsion System (DPS) phasing maneuver	18.6 s	+27.6 m/s	253.5 × 207 km
T + 95:39:08.6	LM DPS insertion maneuver	22.2 s	+13.1 m/s	257.2 × 248.2 km
T + 96:16:06.54	LM concentric sequence initiation maneuver/Descent stage jettison	30.3 s	-12.2 m/s	255.2 × 208.9 km
T + 96:58:15	LM Ascent Propulsion System (APS) constant delta height maneuver	2.9 s	-12.6 m/s	215.6 × 207.2 km
T + 97:57:59	LM terminal phase finalization maneuver	34.7 s	+6.8 m/s	232.8 × 208.5 km
T + 99:02:26	CSM/LM docking
T + 101:22:45	LM ascent stage jettison
T + 101:32:44	Post-jettison CSM separation maneuver	7.2 s	+0.9 m/s	235.7 × 224.6 km
T + 101:53:15.4	LM APS burn to depletion	350 s	+1,643.2 m/s	6,934.4 × 230.6 km
T + 123:25:06.97	Sixth SPS test	1.29 s	-11.5 m/s	222.6 × 195.2 km
T + 169:39:00.36	Seventh SPS test	25 s	+199.6 m/s	463.4 × 181.1 km
T + 240:31:14.84	Deorbit burn (SPS)	11.6 s	-99.1 m/s	442.2 × -7.8 km
T + 240:36:03.8	SM jettison
T + 241:00:54	Splashdown

[edit] Pictures

• 

  David Scott stands in the opened Command Module door

• 

  Apollo 9 LM Spider

• 

  LM Spider over ocean

[edit] Spacecraft location

The Apollo 9 Command Module Gumdrop (1969-018A) is on display at the San Diego Air & Space Museum, San Diego, California. Its service module was jettisoned shortly after the deorbit burn and decayed during reentry of the command module.

The ascent stage of LM-3 Spider (1969-018C) decayed on October 23, 1981.

The descent stage of LM-3 Spider (1969-018D) decayed March 22, 1969.

The upper stage of the Apollo 9 Saturn V, S-IVB-504N, (1969-018B) is in heliocentric (solar) orbit.

[edit] See also

• Extra-vehicular activity
• List of spacewalks
• Splashdown

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• NASA NSSDC Master Catalog
• APOLLO BY THE NUMBERS: A Statistical Reference by Richard W. Orloff (NASA)
• Apollo 9 Characteristics - SP-4012 NASA HISTORICAL DATA BOOK
• Baker, David. The History of Manned Space Flight. Crown Publishers, Inc. First Edition. ISBN 0-517-54377-X
• "Appendix 6 - Crews and Support for Manned Apollo Flights". The Apollo Spacecraft - A Chronology. Volume IV. NASA. 1975. http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4009/v4app6.htm. Retrieved 2008-01-29. 
• Apollo 9 is the name of a 1985 single by the UK new wave pop musician, Adam Ant.

[edit] External links

• NASA Apollo 9 press kit - Feb 23, 1969
• Apollo 9 flight plan AS-504/CSM-104/LM-3 Final report
• Apollo 9 entry in Encyclopedia Astronautica
• The Apollo Spacecraft: A Chronology
• Apollo Program Summary Report
• More Apollo 9 Images
• Apollo/Saturn V Development Apollo 9 Launch ApolloTV.net Video

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