Re: Apollo Mission designators

From: G.Beat (now9spamgb_at_no.comcast.spam.net.invalid)
Date: 09/17/04 

Date: Fri, 17 Sep 2004 18:30:33 GMT

"Scott J" <scottjacobsNOSPAM@bellsouth.net> wrote in message
news:sbF2d.172631$%n4.139144@bignews6.bellsouth.net...
> I'm reading "Apollo: The Lost and Forgotten Missions" by Shayler. After
> the
> Apollo 1 fire the mission designators were changed. Apollo 2
> never flew. Apollo 4 was the first Saturn V test. Apollo 5 was the first
> test flight for the LM. Apollo 6 was the second Saturn V test. Of course
> Apollo 7 was the first manned test of the CSM.
>
> 2 Questions and a lot of speculating on my part....
>
> 1. What happened to Apollo 3? Shayler doesn't say much about this
> mission.
> 2. Is there any possibility the Original 7 astronauts kept Apollo 3 around
> so the first manned mission would be Apollo 7? Sort of a throw back to
> Mercury i.e. Freedom 7, Liberty Bell 7, Faith 7, etc. Schirra was due to
> retire after Apollo 7 and who knew at the time that Shepard, Slayton, or
> Glenn would fly again, and Cooper was pretty well done. Maybe the
> Original
> 7 wanted to fly their last flight with a seven in the name. Yes I know
> Grissom, Cooper, and Schirra got away from the "7" concept during Gemini.
>
> Scott

Scott -

There were a number of orbital and suborbital Saturn launches (I, IB and V)
designated by (SA-x) and (AS-xxx) between 1961 and 1968. The numbering
system, as you can see below, shuffled a few times - with "SA" designations
used through the 1965 Pegasus program (SA-10/Pegasus 3), AS-xxx was used for
the 1966 flights and the designation changed to Apollo # in 1967.

The Apollo 1 mission, originally designated Apollo 204 (1966 AS-xxx
numbering system), was officially assigned the name "Apollo 1" in honor of
Grissom, White, and Chaffee following the January 27, 1967 launchpad
accident(fire).
The first Saturn V launch (uncrewed) in November 9, 1967 was designated
Apollo 4 (no missions were ever officially designated Apollo 2 or 3).
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/apollo1info.html

Sub-orbital - unmanned
1961 - SA-1 - First launch of Saturn 1 (October 27)
1962 - SA-2 - Project HighWater (April 25)
          SA-3 - Project HighWater II (November 16)
1963 - SA-4 - Engine out capability test (March 1963)
1966 - AS-201 - First flight of Saturn 1B (February 26)
          AS-202 - Apollo development flight (August 25)

Orbital - unmanned
1965 - Pegasus program - 3 launches using Saturn 1 (SA-9, SA-8, SA-10)
1966 - AS-203 - Saturn 1B with first S-IVB stage orbital mission (July 5)
1967 - Apollo 4 - first all up launch of Saturn V (November 9)
1968 - Apollo 5 - first test of LM in space (January 22)
          Apollo 6 - final test launch of Saturn V (April 4)

G. Beat
 

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