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The Apollo Boilerplate (BP-06) being prepared for Pad Abort Test 1 (PA-1) at the White Sands Missile Range (WSMR), New Mexico. This was the first abort test of the Apollo spacecraft, launched on November 7, 1963.

“A test version of the Apollo moon capsule will be fired 5,000 feet into the air Thursday at the White Sands (New Mexico) missile range. The escape tower rockets will lift the capsule from the pad. After reaching the desired altitude, three parachutes will return the capsule to earth.

NASA Photo via AP Wirephoto”

Note: the clam-shell structure next to the vehicle to shelter it against the elements.

Date: 1963

Posted on Flickr by Mike Acs.

NASA ID: S63-3293, 63-Apollo-206

The Apollo 1 Command Module (CM-012) being loaded up into the Aero Space lines Pregnant Guppy, bound for the Kennedy Space Center, Florida.

Date: August 24, 1966

SDASM Archives: Casson_0002, Casson_0004, Casson_0007, Casson_0008

The launch of Apollo 11, July 16, 1969.

"1962 Boeing Apollo Lunar Excursion Module Proposal, painting by Boeing artist Jack Olson

On July 25, 1962, NASA invited 11 firms to submit proposals for the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM). Of the 11 invited, 9 submitted proposals. The firms that submitted proposals were Lockheed, Boeing, Northrop, Ling-Temco-Vought, Grumman, Douglas, General Dynamics Convair, Republic, and Martin Marietta. Grumman won."

Date: July 25, 1962

Paul Carsola: link

SA-4 S-I stage hoisted into position onto the pad of Launch Complex 34 and awaiting second and third inert upper stages

Date: March 24, 1963

NASA ID: SAT-4-46, SAT-4-41, 63-SA4-9

"The Saturn IB space vehicle for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project mission, with its launch umbilical tower, rides atop a huge crawler-transporter as it moves slowly away from the Vehicle Assembly Building on its 4.24-mile journey to Pad B, Launch Complex 39, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center."

Date: March 24, 1975

NASA ID: S75-24007, S75-24009

"The Apollo 8 crew stands in the doorway of a recovery helicopter after arriving aboard U.S.S. YORKTOWN, recovery vessel for the historic initial human lunar orbital mission. In left foreground is astronaut Frank Borman, Mission Commander. Behind Borman is astronaut James A. Lovell Jr., Command Module pilot; and on the right is astronaut William A. Anders, Lunar Module pilot. Apollo 8 splashed down at 10:51 a.m. (EST), December 27, 1968, in the central Pacific Ocean, approximately 1,000 miles south-southwest of Hawaii."

Date: December 27, 1968

NASA ID: S68-56326, S69-15737

Internet Archives: GPN-2000-001504

The Apollo 1 prime crewmembers for the first manned Apollo Mission (AS-204, later renamed Apollo 1) prepare to enter their spacecraft inside the altitude chamber at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC). Entering the hatch is astronaut Virgil I. Grissom, command pilot; behind him is astronaut Roger B. Chaffee, pilot; standing at the left with chamber technicians is astronaut Edward H. White II, senior pilot.

Photographed on October 18, 1966.

NASA ID: S66-58038

Apollo astronaut Alan Bean's 1969 Chevrolet AstroVette

Concept art of the Saturn C-1, the Saturn C-5, and the proposed Nova.

Note: "the early designs for the Saturn rockets each have an additional stage that was omitted on the production vehicles. The Marshall Space Flight Center directed studies of Nova configuration from 1960 to 1962 as a means of achieving a manned lunar landing with a direct flight to the Moon. Various configurations of the vehicle were examined, the largest being a five-stage vehicle using eight F-1 engines in the first stage. Although the program was effectively cancelled in 1962 when NASA planners selected the lunar-orbital rendezvous mode, the proposed F-1 engine was eventually used to propel the first stage of the Saturn V launch vehicle in the Apollo Program."

Date: April 11, 1962

NASA ID: 9902050

The Apollo 13 crew, April 10, 1970.  Fred Haise (left), Jack Swigert, and Jim Lovell pose on the day before launch. Swigert had just replaced Ken Mattingly as the Command Module Pilot after Mattingly was exposed to German Measles. 

All Saturn V rockets launched at the same time.

All unmanned Saturn IB and V launches (left to right):

AS-201 (Apollo 2): first uncrewed test flight of an entire production Block I version of the Apollo command and service module and the Saturn IB launch vehicle.

AS-203: its mission was to verify the design of the S-IVB rocket stage restart capability. This was important as the stage was needed to boost astronauts from Earth orbit to a trajectory towards the Moon.

AS-202 (Apollo 3): second uncrewed, suborbital test flight of a production Block I Apollo command and service module.

Apollo 4 (AS-501): first test flight of the Saturn V. Note: this was the first to fly under the official Apollo mission numbering scheme approved after the Apollo 1 tragedy. The widows of the Astronauts requested "Apollo 1" be reserved for the mission their husbands never got to make. Flight Administrator George E. Mueller only considered AS-201 and AS-202 as part of the new sequencing (Apollo 2 and 3 respectfully) since those missions carried Apollo Command and Service Modules.

Apollo 5 (AS-204): first fest flight of the Lunar module. Note: this mission reused the Saturn IB intended for Apollo 1.

Apollo 6 (AS-502): the second test of the Saturn V and qualified it for crewed missions to the moon.

source

"A Hell Of A Ride" by Mark Karvon, link

"Before the attempt could be made for the manned lunar landing, the spacecraft and systems had to be tested to be sure they would work as designed. Apollo 9 was that critical mission. It is often overlooked but the mission tested the complete Apollo spacecraft in space for the first time. It was the first manned flight for the lunar module. The mission took place from March 3 thru March 13, 1969 with an outstanding crew - David Scott, James McDivitt and Russell 'Rusty' Schweickart. A bout of space sickness by Rusty Schweickart threatened to cut some of the mission objectives from the flight plan but he was fortunately able to overcome it. The critical mission objective was the testing of the lunar module 'Spider'. On March 7 (mission day 5) Spider separated from the command module 'Gumdrop'. The spacecraft was put through a series of tests designed to simulate the tasks it would need to perform for a successful lunar landing. The descent engine was fired several times to establish a new orbit flying out to 115 miles away from Gumdrop. The LM ascent stage was separated from the descent stage and the ascent engine was fired to bring Spider back to rendezvous with Gumdrop. By the end of the mission both spacecraft had been thoroughly tested and performed excellently. As Jim McDivitt later said, 'It was a hell of a ride!' Prints are available through my website, www.markkarvon.com"

Astronaut Dave Scott enjoying the view out of his Apollo command module, 1969