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Less than twelve minutes after liftoff, a brief boost from the S-4B third stage placed Apollo into a circular 119-mile orbit at a velocity of 17,427 m.p.h. Over the Pacific for the second time, just 2½ hrs. after launch, the spacecraft was cleared by Houston for "translunar insertion" (TLI). Firing for five minutes, the reliable S-4B engine accelerated the ship to 24,245 m.p.h., fast enough to tear it loose from the earth's gravitational embrace and send it toward the moon. At a point 43,495 miles from the moon, lunar gravity exerted a force...
NASA also hopes to keep its manned space effort alive by using surplus Saturn 4B rockets-which now serve as the third stage of the Apollo launch vehicle-for earth-orbiting flights. This effort, dubbed the Apollo Applications Program, will begin in 1971 with a 28-day flight by three men-one a doctor. These vehicles are only forerunners of a giant space station that NASA plans to orbit by the late 1970s. The first station will probably accommodate twelve people, including the first American spacewoman. It will remain aloft for at least ten years, with crew members rotated every...
Shortly after leaving earth orbit, the astronauts separated their command and service module (Charlie Brown) from the third stage S-4B rocket. Hurtling through the inky void, they pivoted their craft around and moved back to dock with Snoopy, still nestled in the rocket's nose. As the gap between the two craft narrowed, the newly developed 12-lb. color television camera focused on Snoopy during a live transmission 4,120 miles from earth. "This has got to be the greatest sight ever," said a capsule communicator in Houston. Turning toward the receding earth, the TV camera captured...
...ORBITING LABORATORIES. A byproduct of the billions spent on Apollo is the hardware to send three missions, beginning in late 1971, to a manned space laboratory in orbit some 200 miles above the earth. Saturn 4B rockets will spend their fuel and then serve as bungalow-size space stations for three-man crews. The first will include a doctor, who will study the effects on himself and his companions of 28 days under zero gravity. The crew will also try to learn how vacuum and weightlessness affect certain manufacturing processes. These include electron beam welding and the use of molten...
Astronaut's-Eye View. Early in the mission, the astronauts trained a movie camera on the discarded third-stage S-4B rocket while it orbited near by and recorded the sudden and startling spurt of flame as its engine was fired to shove it out of the way and into a permanent orbit around the sun. In a sequence showing Spider undocking from Gumdrop, Spider moved slowly away and then began a smooth and graceful demonstration of its maneuverability...