Qualla: Apollo 9

Apollo 9: Introduction

Sat, 07 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. Three astronauts with head colds delayed a half-million-dollar launch, and nobody at NASA complained. Apollo 9 had been in preparation for three years, its crew the longest-trained in the program's history, and the stakes were too high to risk on stuffy sinuses. When the Saturn V finally lifted off from Kennedy Space Center on March 3, 1969, it carried something no rocket had taken into orbit before: a lunar module with astronauts who intended to fly it. James McDivitt, David Scott, and Rusty Schweickart spent the next ten days proving that the ungainly, spider-legged lander could separate from its mothership, maneuver independently, and dock again - the exact sequence required to land on the Moon and come home. Without Apollo 9, there would have been no Apollo 11.

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Image: Public domain

Apollo 9: The Crew Who Named Their Ships

Sat, 07 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Struck by Robbins Company for NASA, Public domain. NASA had banned spacecraft nicknames after Gus Grissom called Gemini 3 the Molly Brown. But Apollo 9 presented a problem: for the first time, the command module and lunar module would fly separately, and Mission Control needed distinct call signs to avoid confusion. McDivitt's cr...

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Image: Struck by Robbins Company for NASA | Public domain

Apollo 9: Seven Hours for Every One in Space

Sat, 07 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit NASA, Public domain. McDivitt, Scott, and Schweickart logged 1,800 hours of mission-specific training - roughly seven hours of preparation for every hour they would spend in flight. Their training began the day before the Apollo 1 fire, in the very first Block II spacecraft in which they had original...

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Image: NASA | Public domain

Apollo 9: Red Rover Outside the Spider

Sat, 07 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Buaidh, CC BY-SA 4.0. Day four brought the mission's most dramatic test. Schweickart was supposed to exit the lunar module, climb along the spacecraft's exterior to the command module hatch, and demonstrate that astronauts could transfer between vehicles in an emergency. He would wear the Portable Lif...

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Image: Buaidh | CC BY-SA 4.0

Apollo 9: Spider Flies Alone

Sat, 07 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit NASA, Public domain. The fifth day was the real test. McDivitt and Schweickart undocked Spider from Gumdrop, fired the lunar module's descent engine, and flew it independently for more than six hours. They traveled as far as 111 miles from Scott, who waited alone in the command module - a distance th...

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Image: NASA | Public domain

Apollo 9: The Mission That Cleared the Path

Sat, 07 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit NASA, Public domain. Apollo 9 splashed down 160 nautical miles east of the Bahamas on March 13, 1969, after ten days, one hour, and 54 seconds in orbit. It landed about three miles from the recovery carrier USS Guadalcanal - the last crewed spacecraft to splash down in the Atlantic Ocean until Inspir...

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Image: NASA | Public domain