Apollo 9

Apollo 9 was a mission in NASA's Apollo program. It was the third crewed mission in the Apollo program and was the first flight of the Command/Service Module (CSM) with the Lunar Module (LM). The crew was Commander James A. McDivitt, Command Module Pilot David R. Scott, and Lunar Module Pilot Russell L. Schweickart.^[3] The mission was launched on March 3, 1969.^[3] The mission tested several things which were important for landing on the Moon, including the LM engines, backpack life support systems, navigation systems, and docking maneuvers.

Apollo 9

David Scott performs a standup EVA from Command Module Gumdrop, seen from docked Lunar Module Spider
Mission type	Lunar Module test flight
Operator	NASA[1]
COSPAR ID	CSM: 1969-018A LM: 1969-018C
SATCAT no.	CSM: 3769 LM: 3771
Mission duration	10 days, 1 hours, 54 seconds
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft	Apollo CSM-104 Apollo LM-3
Manufacturer	CSM: North American Rockwell LM: Grumman
Launch mass	95,231 pounds (43,196 kg)
Landing mass	11,094 pounds (5,032 kg)
Crew
Crew size	3
Members	James A. McDivitt David R. Scott Russell L. Schweickart
Callsign	CSM: Gumdrop LM: Spider
EVAs	1
EVA duration	77 minutes
Start of mission
Launch date	March 3, 1969, 16:00:00 (1969-03-03UTC16Z) UTC
Rocket	Saturn V SA-504
Launch site	Kennedy LC-39A
End of mission
Recovered by	USS Guadalcanal
Decay date	October 23, 1981 (LM)
Landing date	March 13, 1969, 17:00:54 (1969-03-13UTC17:00:55Z) UTC
Landing site	North Atlantic Ocean 23°15′N 67°56′W
Orbital parameters
Reference system	Geocentric
Regime	Low Earth orbit
Perigee	204 kilometers (127 mi)
Apogee	497 kilometers (309 mi)
Inclination	33.8 degrees
Period	91.55 minutes
Epoch	March 5, 1969[2]
Docking with LM
Docking date	March 3, 1969, 19:01:59 UTC
Undocking date	March 7, 1969, 12:39:06 UTC
Docking with LM Ascent Stage
Docking date	March 7, 1969, 19:02:26 UTC
Undocking date	March 7, 1969, 21:22:45 UTC
Left to right: McDivitt, Scott, Schweickart Apollo program ← Apollo 8 Apollo 10 →