spockvarietyhour reblogged
Workers prepare the Apollo 11 S-IC first stage in the transfer aisle of the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center.
Photographed on February 21, 1969.
spockvarietyhour reblogged
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.
