Apollo 9

third crewed flight of the United States Apollo program

Apollo 9 was a mission in NASA's Apollo program. It was the third crewed mission in the Apollo program and was the first flight of the Command/Service Module (CSM) with the Lunar Module (LM). The crew was Commander James A. McDivitt, Command Module Pilot David R. Scott, and Lunar Module Pilot Russell L. Schweickart.[3] The mission was launched on March 3, 1969.[3] The mission tested several things which were important for landing on the Moon, including the LM engines, backpack life support systems, navigation systems, and docking maneuvers.

Apollo 9
David Scott performs a standup EVA from Command Module Gumdrop, seen from docked Lunar Module Spider
Mission typeLunar Module test flight
OperatorNASA[1]
COSPAR ID
  • CSM: 1969-018A
  • LM: 1969-018C
SATCAT no.
  • CSM: 3769
  • LM: 3771
Mission duration10 days, 1 hours, 54 seconds
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft
Manufacturer
Launch mass95,231 pounds (43,196 kg)
Landing mass11,094 pounds (5,032 kg)
Crew
Crew size3
Members
Callsign
  • CSM: Gumdrop
  • LM: Spider
EVAs1
EVA duration77 minutes
Start of mission
Launch dateMarch 3, 1969, 16:00:00 (1969-03-03UTC16Z) UTC
RocketSaturn V SA-504
Launch siteKennedy LC-39A
End of mission
Recovered byUSS Guadalcanal
Decay dateOctober 23, 1981 (LM)
Landing dateMarch 13, 1969, 17:00:54 (1969-03-13UTC17:00:55Z) UTC
Landing siteNorth Atlantic Ocean
23°15′N 67°56′W / 23.250°N 67.933°W / 23.250; -67.933 (Apollo 9 splashdown)
Orbital parameters
Reference systemGeocentric
RegimeLow Earth orbit
Perigee204 kilometers (127 mi)
Apogee497 kilometers (309 mi)
Inclination33.8 degrees
Period91.55 minutes
EpochMarch 5, 1969[2]
Docking with LM
Docking dateMarch 3, 1969, 19:01:59 UTC
Undocking dateMarch 7, 1969, 12:39:06 UTC
Docking with LM Ascent Stage
Docking dateMarch 7, 1969, 19:02:26 UTC
Undocking dateMarch 7, 1969, 21:22:45 UTC

Left to right: McDivitt, Scott, Schweickart 

References

change
  1. Orloff, Richard W. (September 2004) [First published 2000]. "Table of Contents". Apollo by the Numbers: A Statistical Reference. NASA History Series. Washington, D.C.: NASA. ISBN 0-16-050631-X. LCCN 00061677. NASA SP-2000-4029. Retrieved June 27, 2013. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  2. McDowell, Jonathan. "SATCAT". Jonathan's Space Pages. Retrieved March 23, 2014.
  3. 3.0 3.1 "Apollo 9". NASA. Retrieved 2012-05-17.