1968: Apollo 5 (NASA) (2011-06-22)

The Apollo 5 mission was intended to test the Lunar Module in a space environment, in particular its descent and ascent engine systems, and its ability to separate the ascent and descent stages. The descent engine would become the first throttleable rocket engine fired in space. The mission was also intended to perform a "fire in the hole" test - as depicted in the mission's insignia - whereby the engine of the ascent stage would be fired whilst still attached to the descent stage. This would simulate the conditions experienced in an abort during descent to the lunar surface. It had been planned to launch Apollo 5 in April 1967 and so delivery at the Cape was hoped for around September 1966. But delays kept occurring. Although the lunar module was fully designed, there was trouble fabricating the custom made parts. The all important engines were also having problems. The descent engine was not burning smoothly and the ascent engine was having fabrication and welding difficulties. The launch vehicle for Apollo 5 was the Saturn IB, a smaller rocket than the Saturn V but capable of launching an Apollo spacecraft into Earth orbit. On 22 January 1968, eight months after the planned launch date, Apollo 5 lifted off just before sunset. The Saturn IB worked perfectly, inserting the second stage and LM into a 163 x 222 km orbit. The Lunar Module separated 45 minutes later, and after two orbits started a planned 39 second burn of its descent engine. This was curtailed after four ...

1968: Apollo 6 (NASA) (2011-05-29)

Apollo 6, launched in April 1968, was the Apollo programme's second and last unmanned test flight of its Saturn V launch vehicle. Unlike the near perfect flight of Apollo 4, Apollo 6 experienced problems right from the start. Two minutes into the flight, the rocket experienced severe oscillations for about 30 seconds. In part due to the vibrations, the spacecraft adaptor that attached the CSM and mockup of the Lunar Module to the rocket started to have some structural problems. Airborne cameras recorded several pieces falling off. After the first stage was jettisoned at the end of its task, the S-II second stage began to experience its own problems. Engine Number Two (of five) had performance problems from 206 to 319 seconds after liftoff and then at 412 seconds shut down altogether. Two seconds later Engine Number Three shut down as well. The onboard computer was able to compensate and the stage burned for 58 seconds more than normal. Due to the less than nominal launch, the CSM and S-IVB were now in a 178 by 367 km orbit instead of the planned 160 km circular orbit. But after two orbits of checking out the spacecraft and rocket stage the S-IVB failed to restart to simulate the Trans Lunar Injection burn that would send the astronauts to the Moon. It was decided to use the Service Module engine to raise the spacecraft into a high orbit in order to complete some of the mission objectives. It burned for 442 seconds, longer than it would ever have to on a real Apollo ...

1969: Apollo 12 (NASA) (2011-06-17)

Apollo 12 launched on schedule, during a rainstorm. 36.5 seconds after lift-off from Kennedy Space Center, the Saturn V rocket body was hit by a bolt of lightning. The Apollo 12 mission landed on an area of the Ocean of Storms that had been visited earlier by several unmanned missions (Luna 5, Surveyor 3, and Ranger 7). The International Astronomical Union, recognising this, christened this region Mare Cognitium (Known Sea). The landing site would thereafter be listed as Statio Cognitium on lunar maps. The second lunar landing was an exercise in precision targeting, using a Doppler Effect radar technique developed to allow the pinpoint landings needed for future Apollo missions. Most of the descent was automatic, with manual control assumed by Conrad during the final few hundred feet of descent. Unlike Apollo 11 where Neil Armstrong took manual control of the lander and directed it further down range when he noticed that the intended landing site was strewn with boulders, Apollo 12 succeeded, on 19 November, in landing within walking distance (less than 200 meters) of the Surveyor 3 probe, which had landed on the Moon in April 1967. To improve the quality of television pictures from the Moon, a colour camera was carried on Apollo 12 (unlike the monochrome camera that was used on Apollo 11). Unfortunately, when Bean carried the camera to the place near the lunar module where it was to be set up, he inadvertently pointed it directly into the Sun, destroying the vidicon tube ...