Holbrook.ES@XEROX.ARPA (08/01/84)
A question that is probably often asked: What happened to Apollo missions 2-6? Were they so upset after the disaster of Apollo 1 that they canceled those missions? Paul
mcgeer%ucbchip%Berkeley@sri-unix.UUCP (08/01/84)
From: Rick McGeer (on an aaa-60-s) <mcgeer%ucbchip@Berkeley> I thought that Apollo 2-6 were all unmanned missions. No? Rick.
dsmith%hp-labs.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa (08/02/84)
From: David Smith <dsmith%hp-labs.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa> The spacecraft which burned on the pad was known as Apollo 204 for some reason. I think (but am not at all sure) it was also counted as Apollo 4. One unmanned Apollo was lofted into a high suborbital trajectory, then rammed into the atmosphere at 25000 mph to test the heat shield. David Smith dsmith%hp-labs@csnet-relay ...!ucbvax!hplabs!dsmith Formerly at Cmu-cs-ius.arpa
henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) (08/05/84)
> What happened to Apollo missions 2-6? Were they so upset after the > disaster of Apollo 1 that they canceled those missions? The same thing that happened to Gemini 1 and 2: they were unmanned tests. In fact, there may have been some retroactive renumbering (bletch), because making the Grissom/White/Chaffee mission "Apollo 1" was a memorial afterthought, not the original intent. In the normal course of events, G/W/C would have been Apollo 7 or thereabouts. -- Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology {allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry
nels@astrovax.UUCP (Nels Anderson) (08/06/84)
According to "Rockets, Missiles and Men in Space" by Willy Ley, there were three unmanned flights with Apollo hardware before the fire, beginning in February 1966. At the time they were designated, in order of launching, AS-201, AS-203 and AS-202. During all three, Apollo command and service modules (CSMs) were launched by a Saturn IB. Two of the flights were orbital shots; the other was suborbital. The next flight was to have been the ill-fated Apollo 1 (AS-204). After the fire, AS-201, 203 and 202 became Apollos 1, 3 and 2, respectively. In October 1967 the first Saturn V sent a CSM into a highly elliptical orbit and then rammed it back to earth at lunar return speed. This flight was called Apollo 4 (AS-501). Apollo 5 was an unmanned test of the lunar module (no CSM) in earth orbit using a Saturn IB and Apollo 6 (AS-502) was another Saturn V shot like Apollo 4. Nels Anderson Princeton Astrophysics
henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) (08/07/84)
I got curious enough about this to check my previous comments in the
best available reference, "Chariots For Apollo", which is (roughly
speaking) the official history of the Apollo spacecraft. Turns out
the situation was more complex than it looked.
The Grissom/White/Chaffee mission was indeed known as "Apollo 1", but
not 100% officially. The astronauts had official approval for a shoulder
patch marked "Apollo 1", and this designation also appeared in other
places, but much of NASA continued to refer to the mission by its
internal planning number, AS-204. Three earlier unmanned tests had
been AS-201 through AS-203. Just how this would have all turned out
in the absence of the fire, one can only speculate.
What actually did happen was that the first flight after the fire, an
unmanned test, was officially known throughout NASA as "Apollo 4".
(It still had an AS-xxx number, but this was no longer the final name
of the mission.) Further tests and manned missions went from there.
There was an official decision *not* to retroactively rename the earlier
tests, perhaps partly to avoid the problem of having to call AS-201
"Apollo 1", a name which many people thought should be reserved for the
never-flown AS-204. So there never (officially) was an "Apollo 2" or
"Apollo 3".
[Bibliographic note: "Chariots for Apollo" is still available from the
US Govt Printing Office, and is well worth having, as are "Moonport" and
"Steps to Saturn", the corresponding books on Kennedy Space Center and
the Saturn boosters. Not cheap, and not thin, but good.]
--
Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henryajaym@ihu1h.UUCP (Jay Mitchell) (08/08/84)
I thought that Apollo 2-6 were unmanned test flights. Lots of changes went into design between the Gemini and Apollo series. Apollo 7 was the the first to be manned in the new design. I think! -- ------------------------- Jay Mitchell ihnp4!ihu1h!ajaym -------------------------
henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) (08/12/84)
People have asked how to get "Chariots for Apollo" and the other books
I mentioned, and it seems to be of sufficiently wide interest to post it.
"C. for A." is a detailed history of the Apollo spacecraft; the others cover
the Saturn boosters and the KSC launch facilities. These are very thorough
and very detailed; the thinnest of them is over 500 pages. They are full
of fascinating tidbits (like the vacuum-chamber rehearsal of the Apollo 11
lunar-surface procedures that was aborted when Armstrong reported, "Houston,
this is Apollo 11. We can't get the hatch open."). Highly recommended.
The books are softcover only, but cost much less than I remembered. I
ordered a bunch of other things at the same time, and must have gotten
the prices confused.
They are NASA publications, orderable from:
Superintendent of Documents
U.S. Government Printing Office
Washington, DC 20402
The three books in question, with USGPO stock numbers and prices (as of
about a year ago) are:
Chariots for Apollo: A History of Manned Lunar Spacecraft.
S/N 033-000-00768-0 $12.00
Moonport: A History of Apollo Launch Facilities and Operations.
S/N 033-000-00740-0 $13.00
Stages to Saturn: A Technological History of the Apollo/Saturn Launch Vehicles.
S/N 033-000-00794-0 $12.00
Checks and money orders should be payable to "Superintendent of Documents".
They take Visa and M/C. Foreign customers: no checks, add 25% for mailing.
Allow 4 weeks. Phone orders at (202)783-3238, 8-4 Eastern Time.
You might want to ask for some of their Subject Bibliographies, which are
lists of publications on specific topics. The one I ordered from is
SB-297, "Space, Rockets, and Satellites". I'm not sure these are free,
but I don't know how much they'd cost; I didn't get my copy of SB-297 by mail.
--
Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry