#sa-203

Schematic showing the configuration of the Saturn IB for the AS-203 mission. The second shows diagram the top of the nose cone and the placement of the cryogenic nitrogen experiment.

A night view of Apollo AS-203 on LC-37B before its launch. This mission sent the Saturn IB S-IVB stage into orbit without a payload in order to observe the behavior of the liquid hydrogen in its tank.

Date: July 4, 1966.

Liftoff of Apollo AS-203 Saturn IB (SA-203) from Launch Complex 37 at 10:53 a.m., Kennedy Space Center."This was the second in the uprated Saturn 1 Development Mission Series. 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 stage was inadvertently destroyed after four orbits."

"A tracking camera captures a shockwave coming off the rocket’s nose cone during the first stage burn."

Date: July 5, 1966

Apollo AS-203 Saturn IB (SA-203) on Launch Complex 37B, shortly after all of the components were stacked.

Date: April 21, 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

"Cut-away diagram of the AS-203 S-IVB stage illustrating the dynamics, intended observations, modifications, etc. to observe and assess the behavior of liquid hydrogen in weightless flight."

Date: 1966

Crews erecting the S-IB for AS-203 mission at Launch Complex 37B.

Date: April 12, 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