Apollo 9
On the 27th of January 1967, a fire broke out in the cabin of Apollo 1 during a launch-pad test. The blaze killed all three men inside: Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee. This tragedy forced NASA to conduct a complete safety review of its entire Apollo program. Delays in developing the Block I command module pushed the first crewed Earth orbital test flight into 1967. The revised plan scheduled McDivitt's crew for the second crewed Command Module, which was supposed to rendezvous with an uncrewed Lunar Module launched separately. A third mission commanded by Frank Borman was originally set as the first Saturn V launch with a crew. Under the new schedule following the fire, Apollo 7 became the first crewed mission to go into space, planned for October 1968. This mission tested the Block II command module but did not include a lunar module. In 1967, NASA adopted a series of lettered missions leading up to the crewed lunar landing. The D-mission required testing of the crewed lunar module, which was running behind schedule. This delay endangered John F. Kennedy's goal of Americans walking on the Moon by the end of the 1960s. McDivitt's crew had been announced by NASA in November 1967 as prime crew for this critical D-mission. Seeking to keep Kennedy's goal on schedule, Apollo Program Manager George M. Low proposed a change in August 1968. If Apollo 7 went well, Apollo 8 would go to lunar orbit without a lunar module. Until then, Apollo 8 served as the D-mission while Apollo 9 became the E-mission testing in medium Earth orbit. After NASA approved sending Apollo 8 to the Moon, Slayton offered McDivitt the opportunity to stay with Apollo 8 and thus go to lunar orbit. McDivitt turned it down on behalf of his crew, preferring to stay with the D-mission, now renamed Apollo 9.
McDivitt was in the Air Force and selected as a member of the second group of astronauts in 1962. He served as command pilot of Gemini 4 in 1965. Scott, also from the Air Force, was selected in the third astronaut group in 1963. He flew alongside Neil Armstrong in Gemini 8, where the first spacecraft docking was performed. Schweickart, a civilian who had served in the Air Force and Massachusetts Air National Guard, was selected as a Group 3 astronaut. He was not assigned to a Gemini mission and had no spaceflight experience before this assignment. The backup crew consisted of Pete Conrad as commander, Richard F. Gordon Jr. as Command Module Pilot, and Alan L. Bean as Lunar Module Pilot. This crew later flew as prime on Apollo 12 in November 1969. The support crew for Apollo 9 included Stuart A. Roosa, Jack R. Lousma, Edgar D. Mitchell, and Alfred M. Worden. Lousma was not an original member but was assigned after Fred W. Haise Jr. moved to the position of backup lunar module pilot on Apollo 8. Several astronauts were shifted in the wake of Michael Collins being removed from the Apollo 8 prime crew due to treatment for bone spurs. Flight directors for the mission were Gene Kranz, Gerry Griffin, and Pete Frank. Capsule communicators included Conrad, Gordon, Bean, Worden, Roosa, and Ronald Evans. McDivitt's crew worked together since January 1966, initially as backups for Apollo 1. They always had the assignment of being the first to fly the Lunar Module. Colin Burgess and Francis French deemed McDivitt's crew among the best trained ever. Flight Director Gene Kranz felt Scott was an extremely knowledgeable Command Module Pilot. Crew members underwent 1,800 hours of mission-specific training, about seven hours for every hour they would spend in flight. Their training started on the day before the Apollo 1 fire. They took part in vehicle checkouts at North American Rockwell's facility in Downey, California, and at Grumman's plant in Bethpage, New York. Among the types of training which the crew underwent were simulations of zero-G, both underwater and in the Vomit Comet. During these exercises, they practiced for the planned extravehicular activities. They traveled to Cambridge, Massachusetts, for training on the Apollo Guidance Computer at MIT. The crew studied the sky at the Morehead Planetarium and at the Griffith Planetarium, especially focusing on the 37 stars used by the computer. Each spent more than 300 hours in simulators at Kennedy Space Center and at Houston.
The Saturn V rocket AS-504 used on Apollo 9 was the fourth to be flown. It was the second to carry astronauts to space and the first to bear a lunar module. Although similar in configuration to the Saturn V used on Apollo 8, several changes were made. The inner core of the F-1 engine chamber in the first stage was removed, thus saving weight and allowing for a slight increase in specific impulse. Weight was also saved by replacing the skins of the liquid oxygen tanks with lighter ones. Efficiency increased in the S-II second stage with uprated J-2 engines. A closed-loop propellant utilization system replaced Apollo 8's open-loop system. Of the weight reduction in the second stage, about half came from a 16 percent reduction in the thickness of the tank side walls. Apollo 9 used CSM-104, the third Block II Command Module to be flown with astronauts aboard. Apollo 8 lacked a lunar module and did not have docking equipment. Apollo 9 flew the probe-and-drogue assembly used for docking along with other equipment added near the forward hatch of the Command Module. This allowed for rigid docking of the two craft and internal transfer between them. Had the switch in missions between Apollo 8 and 9 not occurred, the Earth-orbit mission would have flown CSM-103. The Earth-orbit mission was originally supposed to use LM-2 as its lunar module. The crew found numerous flaws in it, many associated with it being the first flight-ready lunar module off Grumman's production line. The delay occasioned by the switch in missions allowed LM-3 to be available. Neither LM-2 nor LM-3 could have been sent to the Moon as both were too heavy. Small cracks in LM-3's aluminum alloy structure due to stresses such as the insertion of a rivet proved an ongoing issue. Grumman's engineers continued working to fix them until the Lunar Module had to be mounted on the Saturn V in December 1968. It was housed inside the Spacecraft-Lunar Module Adapter numbered SLA-11A. LM-2 never flew in space and is now in the National Air and Space Museum.
Originally scheduled to launch on the 28th of February 1969, the liftoff of Apollo 9 was postponed because all three astronauts had colds. Around-the-clock labor shifts were required to keep the spacecraft in readiness. The delay cost $500,000. The rocket launched from Kennedy Space Center at 11:00:00 EST on March 3. Vice President Spiro Agnew was present in the firing control room on behalf of the new Nixon administration. McDivitt reported a smooth ride during the launch, although there was some vibration. The astronauts were surprised to be pushed forward when the first stage stopped firing before its second stage took over. Each of the first two stages slightly underperformed, a deficiency made up more or less by the S-IVB third stage. Once the third stage cut out at 00:11:04.7 into the mission, Apollo 9 had entered a parking orbit. The crew began their first major orbital task with the separation of the Command Module from the S-IVB at 02:41:16 into the mission. They sought to turn around and then dock with the Lunar Module, which was on the end of the S-IVB. If it was not possible to perform such a docking on a later mission, a lunar landing could not take place. It was Scott's responsibility to fly the Command Module, which he did to a successful docking. After McDivitt and Schweickart inspected the tunnel connecting the modules, the assembled spacecraft separated from the rocket. A five-second burn took place at 05:59.01.1 into the mission, accomplished with the Service Propulsion System. Scott excitedly reported the Lunar Module was still in place. From 09:00:00 to 19:30:00, a sleep period was scheduled. The astronauts slept well but complained of being woken by non-English transmissions. Scott theorized that they were possibly in Chinese. The highlight of the second day in orbit was three Service Propulsion System burns. The initial burn lasted 110 seconds and included swiveling or gimbaling the engine to test whether the autopilot could dampen induced oscillations.
The flight plan for the third day had the commander and lunar module pilot enter the Lunar Module to check out its systems. They used its descent engine to move the entire spacecraft. The flight plan was thrown into question when Schweickart suffered from space adaptation sickness and vomited. McDivitt felt queasy as well. They had been avoiding sudden physical motions, but the contortion-like maneuvers to don their space suits caused them to feel ill. The experience taught doctors enough about the sickness to have astronauts avoid it during future lunar landings. At the time, Schweickart feared his vomiting might endanger President Kennedy's goal. They finished the LM checkout including the successful firing of the descent engine and returned to Scott in Gumdrop. The first episode had not been reported to the ground because of its brief nature. When the media learned what had happened to Schweickart, there were repercussions and a spate of unfriendly stories. On March 6, the fourth day's program called for Schweickart to exit the hatch on the Lunar Module. He made his way along the outside of the spacecraft to the Command Module's hatch where Scott stood by to assist. Schweickart wore the life support backpack or PLSS to be worn on the lunar surface EVAs. This was the only EVA scheduled before the lunar landing and thus the only opportunity to test the PLSS in space. McDivitt initially canceled the EVA due to Schweickart's condition but decided to allow him to exit once he felt better. Once there, he moved around the Lunar Module's exterior using handholds. Both men photographed each other and retrieved experiments from the exterior of their vehicles. During the EVA, Schweickart used the call sign Red Rover, a nod to the color of his hair.
On March 7, the fifth day came the key event of the entire mission: the separation and rendezvous of the lunar module and the command module. The lunar module lacked the capability to return the astronauts to Earth. This was the first time space travelers had flown in a vehicle that could not take them home. McDivitt and Schweickart entered the LM early having obtained permission to do so without wearing their helmets and gloves. When Scott pushed the button to release the LM, it initially hung on the latches at the end of the docking probe. He hit the button again and Spider was released. After spending about 45 minutes near Gumdrop, Spider went into a slightly higher orbit. Over the next hours, McDivitt fired the LM's descent engine at several throttle settings. By the end of the day the LM was thoroughly test-flown. At a distance of 13 miles, Spider fired to lower its orbit and thus began to catch up with Gumdrop. The approach and rendezvous were conducted as near as possible to what was planned for the lunar missions. To demonstrate that rendezvous could be performed by either craft, Spider was the active party during the maneuver. McDivitt brought Spider close to Gumdrop then maneuvered the LM to show each side to Scott. Then McDivitt docked the craft. Due to glare from the Sun, he had trouble doing this and Scott guided him in. After McDivitt and Schweickart returned to Gumdrop, Spider was jettisoned. Its engine fired remotely to fuel depletion by Mission Control as part of further testing. The sixth burn of the SPS engine took place on the sixth day though it was postponed one orbit. The seventh burn of the SPS system took place on the eighth day, March 10. It shifted the apogee of the orbit to the Southern Hemisphere allowing for a longer free-fall time to entry when Apollo 9 returned to Earth. The eighth and final SPS burn to return the vehicle to Earth was accomplished on March 13 less than an hour after the ten-day mark.
Apollo 9 splashed down east of the Bahamas about 125 miles from the recovery carrier USS Guadalcanal. The mission lasted 10 days, 1 hour, 54 seconds. Apollo 9 was the last spacecraft to splash down in the Atlantic Ocean for a half century until the Crew Dragon Demo-1 mission in 2019. It was also the last crewed splashdown in the Atlantic until Inspiration4 in 2021. The ascent stage of LM-3 Spider reentered on the 23rd of October 1981. The descent stage of LM-3 Spider reentered on the 22nd of March 1969 landing in the Indian Ocean near North Africa. The S-IVB was sent into solar orbit with initial aphelion of 1.5 million kilometers and perihelion of 91 million kilometers. It remains in solar orbit today. As NASA Associate Administrator George Mueller put it, Apollo 9 was as successful a flight as any of them could ever wish for. Gene Kranz called Apollo 9 sheer exhilaration. Apollo Program Director Samuel C. Phillips stated that in every way it had exceeded even their most optimistic expectations. Although McDivitt might have been offered command of an Apollo lunar landing mission he chose to leave the Astronaut Corps after Apollo 9. He became manager of the Apollo Spacecraft Program later in 1969. Scott was soon given another spaceflight assignment as backup commander of Apollo 12 then made mission commander of Apollo 15 landing on the Moon in 1971. Schweickart volunteered for medical investigation of his spacesickness but was unable to shake its stigma. He never again assigned to a prime crew. Eugene Cernan stated that when it came to understanding spacesickness Schweickart paid the price for them all.
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Common questions
What was the primary purpose of Apollo 9?
Apollo 9 served as the E-mission testing in medium Earth orbit to validate the Lunar Module and docking procedures. The mission tested the crewed lunar module for the first time with astronauts aboard.
When did Apollo 9 launch and splash down?
The rocket launched from Kennedy Space Center at 11:00:00 EST on the 3rd of March 1969. The mission lasted 10 days, 1 hour, 54 seconds before splashing down east of the Bahamas about 125 miles from the recovery carrier USS Guadalcanal.
Who were the three astronauts assigned to the Apollo 9 prime crew?
James McDivitt commanded the mission while David Scott served as Command Module Pilot and Rusty Schweickart flew as Lunar Module Pilot. All three men had been announced by NASA in November 1967 as prime crew for this critical D-mission.
Why was the Apollo 9 launch delayed from February 1969?
All three astronauts contracted colds which forced a postponement of the originally scheduled launch date of the 28th of February 1969. The delay cost $500,000 and required around-the-clock labor shifts to keep the spacecraft in readiness.
What major spacewalk event occurred during Apollo 9?
Rusty Schweickart performed an extravehicular activity on the 6th of March 1969, exiting the hatch on the Lunar Module to test the PLSS life support backpack. He moved along the exterior of the spacecraft using handholds and retrieved experiments from the vehicle's outside.