apollo 2 to 10th mission

                      NASA grew more cautious and went back to the basics. Two test rockets were fired without any personnel on board, just to check the abilities of the Saturn I launch vehicle.

                  These were unofficially dubbed the Apollo 2 and Apollo 3. Apollo 4 was the first unmanned mission in the programme, and used the modified Saturn V launch vehicle. It was fitted with a complete Command/ Service Module and on November 9, 1967, it successfully blasted off from Cape Canaveral. The mission provided vital information on the need for dampening mechanisms at the launchpad to protect structures in its vicinity.

                        Thereafter, Apollo 5 was launched on January 22, 1968, and became the first test of the Lunar Module, followed quickly by the Apollo 6 unmanned flight which made the scientists confident enough to put astronauts in the next mission.
                       Apollo 7 would become the first manned mission since the tragic loss of Apollo 1. On Oct 11, 1968, the rocket took off carrying Walter Schirra Jr., Walter Cunningham and Donn Eisele. At five minutes, 54 seconds into the mission, Schirra Jr., the commander, reported, “She is riding like a

dream.” About ten minutes after launch, Apollo 7 reached the first stage of its journey, an orbital path 227 by 285 kilometers above Earth. The Apollo vehicle and the CSM performed superbly. Durability was shown for 10.8 days – longer than a journey to the moon and back. With few exceptions, the other systems in the spacecraft operated as they should. The next flight, Apollo 8, would be the first time a manned mission went as far as the moon.

Apollo Statistics Man Missions

                             Unofficially titled ‘Around the Moon and Back’, the spacecraft launched on December 21, 1968 carrying astronauts Frank Borman, James Lovell Jr. and William Anders. After reaching the Earth’s orbit, they further boosted towards the moon. The mission also proved the first mid-course correction of a manned spacecraft. Apollo 8 finally reached lunar orbit, where the crew conducted necessary tests and also broadcast a Christmas message to television sets around the world.                      

                               Apollo 9 launched on March 3, 1969, into a 190-kilometre Earth orbit with Commander James McDivitt, Command Module Pilot David Scott and Lunar Module Pilot Russell Schweickart aboard. The primary objective of the mission was an Earth-orbital engineering test of the first crewed Lunar Module. The flight plan’s top priority was the CSM and LM rendezvous and docking. This was performed twice – once while the LM was still attached to the Saturn rocket, and again when the LM was active.

                     Apollo 10 launched on May 18, 1969, with crew members Commander Thomas Stafford, Command Module Pilot John Young and Lunar Module Pilot Eugene Cernan. The launch trajectory had been so satisfactory that only one of four midcourse corrections was needed. The Apollo 10 mission encompassed all aspects of an actual crewed lunar landing, except the landing. It was the first flight of a complete, crewed Apollo spacecraft to operate around the moon. Objectives included a scheduled eight-hour lunar orbit of the separated Lunar Module and descent to about 15 kilometres off the moon’s surface before ascending for rendezvous and docking with the Command and Service Module. Pertinent data to be gathered in this landing rehearsal dealt with the lunar potential, or gravitational effect, to refine the Earth-based crewed spaceflight network tracking techniques, and to check out LM programmed trajectories and radar, and lunar flight control systems. Twelve television transmissions to Earth were planned, including the first colour TV pictures to Earth of the moon’s surface. All mission objectives were achieved.