‘A Hell of a Ride’ – Apollo 9 Celebrates 52 Years Since Historic Launch on March 3, 1969

By  //  March 3, 2021

paved the way for future Apollo missions

ABOVE VIDEO: Celebrating 50 Years of Apollo 9: ‘A Hell of a Ride’

March 3, 1969 –NASA tested the capabilities of their Moon landing spacecraft in Earth’s orbit 52 years ago, to the day.

Commander James McDivitt, Command Module Pilot David Scott and Lunar Module Pilot Rusty Schweickart performed systems checks and gathered data.

The Lunar Module and the Command Module separated by nearly 100 miles and an engine burn check brought them back together.

A challenging rendezvous and docking proved the abilities of the hardware.

This historic mission launched on March 3, 1969 as an engineering mission and paved the way for future Apollo missions.

Commander James McDivitt, Command Module Pilot David Scott and Lunar Module Pilot Rusty Schweickart performed systems checks and gathered data. (NASA Image)

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