posted 01-07-2017 09:08 AM               

Space Cover #399: Apollo 5: LM's First Flight

Apollo 5/AS-204, the first flight of the spacecraft intended to land astronauts on the moon, took place on January 22, 1968. Lunar Module-1, atop a Saturn 1B rocket — the same rocket that the Apollo 1 crew perished atop — was launched from LC-37B at Cape Kennedy.

LM-1's mission was intended to test the Lunar Module in a space environment and to verify both descent and ascent engine systems, and also to verify the staging of the descent and ascent stages to simulate an abort during powered descent.

The Apollo 5/LM-1's mission's duration was seven orbits, taking 11 hours, 10 minutes. Upon completion of the successful unmanned mission, LM's ascent stage reentered two days later, followed by the descent stage's reentry on February 12, 1968. The successful LM spaceflight paved the way for LM-3 to be manned and tested in earth orbit on Apollo 9.

This cover was postmarked at KSC for the Apollo 5 launch at Cape Kennedy and was one of 8,300 such covers to receive this Apollo 5/AS 204 official NASA/KSC blue rubber stamp cachet.

As a new collector in the 1970's, I sent this cover to Gene Kranz, the Apollo 5 flight director, who signed it while including a notation thanking me for my interest in Apollo 5 and informing me that few people recognize the significance of this first LM mission.

posted 01-14-2017 01:07 PM               

I had forgotten that Gene Kranz had been the flight director of Apollo 5 from Houston.

Using an official KSC-NASA rubber stamp cachet cover depiction was a good choice, I would think, in having the flight controller sign and inscribe such a "clean" cover as this that provided lots of room for a nice autograph inscription.

Since the first lunar module earth orbital flight test went so well in a space environment, despite though a few problems with some of the LM systems, NASA decided to cancel the second lunar module (LM-2) flight altogether.