#sa-202

"Ground crews hoist the Saturn IB rocket’s first stage for the Apollo AS-202 mission into position at Launch Pad 34 at the Cape Kennedy Air Force Station, now Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, in Florida."

Date: March 1, 1966

AS-202 Saturn IB (CSM-011/SA-202) lifts off from Launch Complex (LC-34),Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 12:15 p.m. The mission was a step toward qualifying the Apollo Command and Service Modules (CSM)'s and the uprated Saturn I launch vehicle for manned flight."Primary mission objectives included the confirmation of projected launch loads, demonstration of spacecraft component separation, and verification of heat shield adequacy at high reentry rates."

Note: this mission was retroactively designated Apollo 3.

Commemorative mission patch created by Retrorocket Emblem (source)

Date: August 25, 1966

AS-202 mission profile.

Date: August 25, 1966

"This chart provides a launch summary of the Saturn IB launch vehicle as of 1973. Developed by the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) as an interim vehicle in MSFC's 'building block' approach to the Saturn rocket development, the Saturn IB utilized Saturn I technology to further develop and refine the larger boosters and the Apollo spacecraft capabilities required for the marned lunar missions."

Date: 1973

"Workers at Launch Pad 34 at Cape Kennedy Air Force Station, now Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, stack the AS-202 Apollo spacecraft (CSM-011) atop the Saturn IB (SA-202) rocket."

Date: July 2, 1966

The different configurations of the Saturn IB and the planned missions for each.

Several things of note:

This graphic shows the planned mission configuration for AS-201 through AS-212. The AS-2XX was the mission nomenclature before AS-204 was changed to Apollo 1. This change was requested by the Astronauts' wives to honor their husbands, who lost their lives in the fire. The plans before Apollo 1 disaster deserve its own post.

Only AS-204/Apollo 5 launched carrying only the Lunar Module (LM-1). There were plans for a second mission but after the success of the first, it was not needed.

After AS-205/Apollo 7, the rest of the Saturn IBs were placed into storage and refurbished for the Skylab and ASTP missions.

It's interesting AS-212 was scheduled to carry both an Apollo module and a Lunar Module as the Saturn IB did not have enough Delta-V to carry both into orbit. Nor did it have enough to launch a fully fueled Apollo CSM, as all missions carrying it had to be partially loaded.

Missing from this list is SA-213 and SA-214. Both were not completed before funding ran out and what was built (the S-IB stage), was scrapped. SA-212's S-IVB was converted into the backup Skylab space station (aka Skylab B) and its S-IB stage was scrapped.

SA-215 and SA-216 were cancelled before they were started in July 1968.

Date: 1968

NASA ID: 0100803