USS Hornet and the forgotten Apollo AS-202 mission

Video from the channel CuriousMarc about AS-202, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 11:43. Language: English. Video type: Documentary.

A visit to the museum aircraft carrier USS Hornet, moored in San Francisco Bay, focused on command module CM-011, which flew on the AS-202 mission. The video tells the capsule's story and also tours other Apollo program pieces on display aboard.

AS-202 flew on August 25, 1966 as a qualification flight before Apollo 1. It was the first essentially complete Block I command module to fly and the first with the Apollo guidance computer aboard. It was also the first to use fuel cells (two, rather than the three of later spacecraft) and debuted tests of the S-band transponder. A Saturn IB, with an S-IVB as its second stage, launched the spacecraft on a suborbital flight. The service module engine fired four times: it raised the apogee to 1,142 km and accelerated the capsule to about 32,000 km/h for reentry.

The heat shield performed well during a skip reentry, although the capsule splashed down 380 km from the Hornet, which took eight and a half hours to recover it. The error was attributed to the capsule's lift-to-drag ratio differing from what was expected. Later, as CM-011A, it was used in a land-drop test and in training, passed through the National Air and Space Museum, and, once restored, returned to the Hornet in 2004. Also on display aboard are the Apollo 14 mobile quarantine facility and a replica of helicopter 66.