|
Saturn IB
The Saturn IB (also known as the uprated Saturn I) was an American launch vehicle commissioned by the NASA, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for the Apollo program. It uprated the Saturn I by replacing the S-IV second stage (, 43,380,000 lb-sec total impulse), with the S-IVB (, 96,000,000 lb-sec total impulse). The S-IB first stage also increased the S-I baseline's thrust from to and propellant load by 3.1%. This increased the Saturn I's low Earth orbit payload capability from to , enough for early flight tests of a half-fueled Apollo command and service module (CSM) or a fully fueled Apollo Lunar Module (LM), before the larger Saturn V needed for lunar flight was ready. By sharing the S-IVB upper stage, the Saturn IB and Saturn V provided a common interface to the Apollo spacecraft. The only major difference was that the S-IVB on the Saturn V burned only part of its propellant to achieve Earth orbit, so it could be restarted for trans-lunar injec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
AS-203
AS-203 (also known as SA-203 or Apollo 3) was an uncrewed flight of the Saturn IB rocket on July 5, 1966. It carried no command and service module, as its purpose was to verify the design of the S-IVB rocket stage restart capability that would later be used in the Apollo program to boost astronauts from Earth orbit to a trajectory towards the Moon. It achieved its objectives, but the S-IVB was inadvertently destroyed after four orbits during a differential pressure test that exceeded the design limits. Objectives The purpose of the AS-203 flight was to investigate the effects of weightlessness on the liquid hydrogen fuel in the S-IVB-200 second-stage tank. The lunar missions would use a modified version of the S-IVB-200, the S-IVB#Configuration, S-IVB-500, as the third stage of the Saturn V launch vehicle. This called for the stage to fire briefly to insert the spacecraft into an Earth parking orbit, before restarting the engine for flight to the Moon. In order to design this cap ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
