THE APOLLO 5 MISSION NASA APOLLO PROGRAM LUNAR MODULE FILM 77444

Video from the channel PeriscopeFilm II about Apollo program, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 16:40. Language: English. Video type: Archive footage.

NASA film devoted to Apollo 5, the first uncrewed flight test of the LM-1 lunar module, the last major piece of the Apollo program still awaiting testing. The module appears protected by its fairing atop a Saturn IB, while teams at Cape Kennedy and Houston mission control prepare for launch. Astronauts Jim McDivitt and Rusty Schweickart, slated for the module's first crewed flight, follow the mission, and Frank Borman and Bill Anders explain its function: the descent stage, with a throttleable engine, is used to land on the Moon; the ascent stage, with the cabin, to lift off and return to the command module. It also shows how it was tested on the ground, with engine test stands and vacuum chambers.

The footage was taken around the time of the mission, at Pad 37 at Cape Kennedy, in Houston, and across the tracking network (Carnarvon, Hawaii, White Sands, and the ship Coastal Sentry Quebec). The launch vehicle, which had been on the pad for over a year, had been intended to carry the first Apollo crew before the January 1967 tragedy.

The first descent engine burn was cut short at 4 seconds by the onboard computer's decision. Flight director Gene Kranz chose an alternate plan: a shortened descent engine burn, which then ramped up to 100% thrust, and the "fire in the hole" test, in which the ascent stage is ignited while still attached to the descent stage. With attitude control propellant nearly depleted, the final ascent engine burn was commanded over Hawaii. The module ended up spinning out of control, but its systems held, and it was left in a decaying orbit until it broke up.