Apollo 6 - The Successfully Failed Mission

Video from the channel The Random Channel about Apollo 6, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 4:41. Language: English. Video type: Documentary.

The video explains Apollo 6, the third and last uncrewed flight of the Apollo program and the second launch of the Saturn V after Apollo 4. It lifted off on 4 April 1968 from Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center.

The goal was to demonstrate that the third stage, the S-IVB, could send the spacecraft to lunar distance and leave the Saturn V ready for crewed flights.

It walks through the chain of failures: pogo oscillations in the first stage, the loss of an adapter panel, the shutdown of two J-2 engines on the second stage (the third due to crossed wiring), and the S-IVB, which failed to reignite. The service module engine then simulated a return from the Moon. The command module splashed down 80 km from the planned point and was recovered by the USS Okinawa.