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50 Years Ago: Apollo 9 Preparations at L-6 weeks

Preparations for the Apollo 9 mission continued in January 1969. Commander James A. McDivitt, Command Module Pilot (CMP) David R. Scott, and Lunar Module Pilot (LMP) Russell L. Schweickart were in training for their upcoming flight which at the time was planned to launch in late February 1969. Apollo 9 was the first crewed mission to test the all-important LM, the vehicle that took two astronauts down to the Moon’s surface and returned them to the waiting Command Module (CM) in lunar orbit. In the relative safety of low Earth orbit, McDivitt and Schweickart planned to enter the LM, undock from Scott who would remain in the CM, and fly the LM up to 100 miles away, testing the systems of its descent and ascent stages before performing a rendezvous and docking with the CM and reuniting with Scott. Schweickart and Scott also planned to conduct the first spacewalk of the Apollo program, and also the only one planned before the spacewalk on the Moon’s surface, to test the reliability of the space suit.

At Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida, the Saturn V rocket that would carry Apollo 9 into space had rolled out on Jan 3. Workers immediately began to prepare the rocket and spacecraft for flight, including software integration tests with the Mission Control Center at the Manned Spacecraft Center, now the Johnson Space Center in Houston. On Jan. 15, McDivitt, Scott, and Schweickart, along with their backups Charles “Pete” Conrad, Richard F. Gordon, and Alan L. Bean, conducted emergency egress training from their spacecraft at Launch Pad 39A. Launch controllers at KSC successfully completed the Flight Readiness Test, the final major overall test of the vehicle’s systems, between Jan. 19 and 22. During a Jan. 25 press conference at the Grumman Aircraft and Engineering Corporation in Bethpage, New York, manufacturer of the LM, the Apollo 9 astronauts provided reporters with an overview of their upcoming mission.

NASA History
Left: McDivitt (left), Scott (emerging from the spacecraft), and Schweickart (right) during emergency egress training.
Right: Apollo 9 crew of (left to right) Schweickart, Scott, and McDivitt, pose in front of a model of a Lunar Module at
the Grumman plant in Bethpage, NY.

Managers completed a critical design review of the Launch Complex 39 slide wire escape system on Jan. 17 and volunteers carried out a test of the system on Jan. 25. During the test, Apollo 9 support astronaut Stuart A. Roosa, KSC Safety representative Chuck Billings, and Design Engineering representative Art Porcher climbed aboard the escape basket along with six life-size and weighted dummies at the 320-foot level of the launch tower. They rode the basket along a 2,400-foot slide wire. In an emergency, an Apollo crew and support personnel would use the mechanism to escape to safety.

NASA History
Three views of the test of the slidewire escape test at Launch Pad 39A. Left: Billings, Roosa, and Porcher, along with
six full size dummies, prepare to descend in the basket. Middle: The basket during its descent.
Right: Billings (at right) is already out of the basket, with Roosa preparing to descend a rope and Porcher waiting his turn.