AS-203

AS -203 was the second unmanned test flight of the Apollo program, NASA.

Target

This flight was mainly used to test the two-stage Saturn IB rocket and the new instrument panel. Instead of an Apollo spacecraft only a dummy at the top of the rocket was assembled. In contrast to the previous test flight AS- 201, a reaching orbit was planned. The interest of the flight line was especially true of the second stage S- IVB after the orbit is reached. For a moon landing a re-ignition of such a step was ( then, however, as the third stage of a Saturn V) planned, so it was important to know the behavior of the liquid fuel in the weightlessness. 83 for this purpose sensors and two television cameras have been installed in the tank of the second stage.

Preparation

The individual parts of the rocket arrived by sea at Cape Canaveral: the second stage on 6 April 1966, the first stage on April 12 and the instrument unit on April 14. On 21 April, the rocket was assembled on launch pad 37 -B. At the same time the rocket AS -202 was on the launch pad 34 Delivery of the designated Apollo spacecraft had been delayed. Since AS -203 should start without spaceship, it was decided in the spring of 1966, re turning down the order and AS -203 AS -202 prior to launch.

Besides these two Saturn IB rocket was still a non- airworthy test copy of the Saturn V on the launch pad 39 -A.

History of the flight

The countdown had to be interrupted several times. Among other things, one of the two cameras had failed in the tank. Since they could not be repaired or replaced with reasonable effort, the flight was performed with a single camera.

The launch took place without problems. The first stage burning 2 minutes and 20 seconds 4 minutes and the second stage is 50 seconds, then the second step and the tool unit in the orbit were. The rocket behaved as planned, the engine could be ignited as intended again. After four orbits of the second stage compression strength was tested by being set while under pressure until they burst. A re-entry or even a recovery was not provided for this flight.

Impact on the Apollo program

All mission objectives were achieved, the S- IVB stage had proved to be able to be re- ignited in Earth orbit, and so was an Apollo spacecraft carrying the moon. Another Apollo test flight, suborbital however, should be carried out with an airworthy copy of the Apollo spacecraft. For the fourth flight of the Saturn IB was then already planned a manned mission under the name AS- 204. Since in a soil test the spacecraft caught fire and three astronauts were killed (Apollo 1), the Apollo program was, however, significantly delayed.