Apollo+40: Getting Ready for Apollo 9!

Their Finest Hour's tribute to the Apollo Program on its 40th Anniversary resumes Monday, March 2nd with a chronicle of the flight of Apollo 9. Apollo 9 flew from March 3-13, 1969 and featured the critical first manned flight test of the Lunar Module.

Apollo 9 could be viewed as anticlimatic after Apollo 8's historic trip in December, 1968 to lunar orbit but the mission accomplished by Commander James McDivitt, Command Module Pilot Dave Scott, and Lunar Module Pilot Rusty Schweickart was no less important in America's journey to the Moon.

Apollo 9 was originally scheduled for launch on February 28, 1969 but was delayed until March 3rd to allow the crew to recover from "mild respiratory illness".

My tribute to Apollo 9 will draw upon the following sources:

Encyclopedia Astronautica
NASA Apollo Mission Reports
NASA Mission Transcripts for Apollo 9
Wikipedia
And others...


NASA's tribute to Apollo 9 can be found at this link.

There are now just 142 days until we celebrate Man's first steps on the Moon.