Info on Apollo 9 ("Spider")?

Question

Could someone tell me some more info on Apollo 9? The "Spider" LEM. Or where I could read vaild info on it? Thanks.

Did it land on the moon?

Answer 1

Apollo 9 was the third manned mission in the Apollo program, a ten day earth-orbital mission launched 3 March 1969. It was the second manned flight of the Saturn V launch vehicle and the first manned flight of the Apollo Lunar Module (LM).

Original mission profile
In October 1967, it was planned that following the first manned orbital flight of the Command/Service Module (CSM) (Apollo 7, also known as the C Mission), the second manned Apollo mission (D Mission) would have a manned CSM launched on a Saturn 1B, and a few days later the Lunar Module launched on a second Saturn 1B to practice the first orbit rendezvous. McDivitt, Scott and Schweickart were given this mission, with Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and William Anders being assigned to a later, similar Earth-orbit test (E Mission), this time using the Saturn V to carry both the CSM and LM.

However, production problems with the LM meant that the D Mission would not be able to fly until the spring of 1969, so NASA officials created another "C-Prime" mission to go in between the C and D missions, involving the CSM (with no LM) making the first manned flight to the Moon. This flight became Apollo 8, and was given to Borman, Lovell and Anders. Although he was in the rotation for it, McDivitt claims he was never offered the "C-Prime" mission as he was already experienced with the LM - but if he had been offered it, he probably would have declined, as he wanted to fly the LM. The original E Mission was subsequently scrubbed - Apollo 9 was the only Earth-orbit test of the full Apollo spacecraft, and was launched on a Saturn V instead of two Saturn 1Bs. This had long lasting consequence - when the crew rotation for Apollos 8 and 9 were swapped, their backup crews were also swapped, putting Neil Armstrong and his crew (who were Borman, Lovell and Anders' backups) in line for the first manned landing mission instead of Pete Conrad and his crew.


Mission highlights
Apollo 9 was the first space test of the complete Apollo spacecraft, including the third critical piece of Apollo hardware - the lunar module. For ten days, the astronauts put all three Apollo vehicles through their paces in Earth orbit, undocking and then redocking the lunar lander with the command module, just as they would in lunar orbit. Apollo 9 gave proof that the Apollo machines were up to the task of orbital rendezvous and docking.

For this and all subsequent Apollo flights, the crews were allowed to name their own spacecraft (the last spacecraft to have been named was Gemini 3). The gangly lunar module was named "Spider", and the command module was labelled "Gumdrop" on account of the blue cellophane wrapping in which the craft arrived at KSC.

Schweickart and Scott performed an EVA - Schweickart checked out the new Apollo spacesuit, the first to have its own life support system rather than being dependent on an umbilical connection to the spacecraft, while Scott filmed him from the command module hatch. Schweickart was due to carry out a more extensive set of activity to test the suit, and demonstrate that it was possible for astronauts to perform an EVA from the lunar module to the command module in an emergency, but as he had been suffering from space sickness, this was restricted to the stand up test in the Lunar Module hatch.

McDivitt and Schweickart later testflew the LM, and practiced separation and docking maneuvers in earth orbit. They flew the LM up to 111 miles from "Gumdrop", using the engine on the descent stage to propel them originally, before jettisoning it and using the ascent stage to return.

The splashdown point was 23 deg 15 min N, 67 deg 56 min W, 180 miles (290 km) east of Bahamas and within sight of the recovery ship USS Guadalcanal.

The command module was displayed at the Michigan Space and Science Center, Jackson, Michigan until April 2004 when the center closed. In May 2004, it was moved to the San Diego Aerospace Museum. The LM ascent stage orbit decayed on 23 October 1981, the LM descent stage (1969-018D) orbit decayed 22 March 1969. The S-IVB stage J-2 engine was restarted after Lunar Module extraction and propelled the stage into solar orbit by burning to depletion.

The crew sang the song "Happy Birthday" on March 8, 1969.

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Apollo-9 (25)
Pad 39-A (4)
Saturn-V AS-504 (4)
High Bay 3
MLP 2
Firing Room 2

Crew:
James A. McDivitt
David R. Scott
Russell L. Schweickart

Backup Crew:

Milestones:
05/15/68 - S-II Stage ondock at KSC
09/30/68 - S-1C Stage ondock at KSC
09/12/68 - S-IVB ondock at KSC
09/30/68 - S-IU ondock at KSC
01/03/69 - Rollout to pad
02/19/69 - Countdown Demonstration Test
03/03/69 - Launch

Payload:
CSM-104 (Gumdrop) and LM-3 (Spider)

Mission Objective:
Demonstrate crew/space vehicle/mission support facilities during manned Saturn V/CSM/LM mission (Achieved). Demonstrate LM/crew performance (Achieved). Demonstrate selected lunar orbit rendezvous mission activities including transposition, docking withdrawal, intervehicular crew transfer, EVA, SPS and DPS burns, and LM active rendezvous and docking. All achieved except EVA (because of Schweickart's illness, most EVA's were canceled). Assess CSM/LM consumables used.
Launch:
March 03, 1969; 11:00:00 am EST. Launch Complex 39-A Kennedy Space Center. No delays.


Orbit:
Altitude: 192km x 190km
Inclination: xxx degrees
Orbits:
Duration: 10 Days, 01 hours, min, seconds
Distance: miles

Landing:
March 13, 1969 at 12:01 p.m. EST; Landing point 23deg 12.5min North and 67deg 56min West (Atlantic Ocean). Miss distance 4.8 kilometers. Crew on board U.S.S Guadalcanal at 12:45pm EST; Spacecraft aboard ship at 02:13pm.

Mission Highlights:
Apogee, 192 km, perigee, 190km; first manned Apollo docking 03:01:59 MET; first docked SPS burn, 05:59:01 MET; first Apollo EVA, 72:53:00 MET. First manned Apollo undocking, 92:39:36 MET; first manned LM to CSM docking, 99:02:26 MET;

First manned flight of all lunar hardware in Earth orbit. Schweickart performed 37 minutes EVA. Human reactions to space and weightlessness tested in 152 orbits. First manned flight of lunar module.

Answer 2

Simple Google search finds...

http://nix.larc.nasa.gov/search?b=SC000209
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/history/apollo/apollo9/index.html
(see links at bottom right)

HLCYG?