LAUNCH CENTER

Partial Failure

Thu Apr 04 1968

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Apollo 6

Launch Failure

LAUNCH TIME

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RECOVERY OVERVIEW

Location

No Recovery Specified

Type

No Recovery Specified

Rocket Details

Name:

Saturn V

Description:

The Saturn V was a human-rated expendable rocket used by NASA between 1967 and 1973. Most notably, the Saturn V took the Apollo program to the Moon. At the time and decades following its operational life, it was the world's tallest, heaviest, and most powerful rocket ever brought to operational status and is the only launch vehicle to take humans beyond LEO.

MISSION OVERVIEW

Type: Human Exploration
Apollo 6 was intended to send a Command and Service Module (CSM) plus a Lunar Module Test Article (LTA), a simulated Lunar Module (LM) with mounted structural vibration sensors, into a translunar trajectory. However, the Moon would not be in position for a translunar flight, and the Service Module engine would be fired about five minutes later to slow the craft, dropping its apogee to 11,989 nautical miles (22,204 km) and causing the CSM to return to Earth, simulating a "direct-return" abort. On the return leg, the engine would fire once more to accelerate the craft to simulate the nominal lunar return trajectory with a re-entry angle of -6.5 degrees and velocity of 36,500 feet per second (11,100 m/s). The entire mission would last about 10 hours.

COMPLEX OVERVIEW

Location

Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA

Pad

Launch Complex 39A