Launch from Cape Canaveral; landing close to the
Bermuda-Islands in the Atlantic Ocean.
The crews of this and the
following Apollo-missions were allowed to name their own spacecraft (that
happened the last time with
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.
First manned flight of all lunar hardware in Earth orbit. First manned flight
of the lunar module (seperation, landing manoeuvre, docking).
EVA on
06.03.1969 by
Schweickart (1h 08m), checking out the new Apollo-spacesuit,
the first to have its own life support system. His only connection to the
LM was a 25-foot nylon rope
to keep him from drifting into space.
Schweickart walked between the
LM and
CSM hatches,
maneuvered on handrails, took photographs, and described rain squalls over
KSC;
Scott
in a stand-up-
EVA (1h 08m) filmed
him from the command module hatch.
On March 7,1969 with
McDivitt and
Schweickart in the
LM,
Scott
separated the
CSM from the
LM and fired the reaction
control system thrusters to obtain a distance of 5.5 kilometers between the two
spacecraft. Both astronauts then performed a lunar-module active rendezvous.
The
LM successfully docked
with the
CSM
after being up to 183.5 kilometers away from it during the
six-and-one-half-hour separation. After
McDivitt and
Schweickart returned to the
CSM, the
LM ascent stage was
jettisoned. The crew performed also additional scientific work (i.e.
photography of Earth surface). All the main goals of this mission were
successfully accomplished.
As a result of unfavorable weather in the
planned landing area, Apollo 9 completed an additional orbit before returning
to Earth. The crew was recovered by "
USS
Guadalcanal".
