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Post by gwiz on Aug 4, 2005 11:22:07 GMT -4
Apollo 2 and 3 were actually called Apollo-Saturn 202 and 203. Could you quote a NASA source for this interpretation? I think it's just someone's unofficial attempt to explain the missing Apollo 2 and 3 by applying the names to these flights. The crew patch with "Apollo 1" was released in 1966, even if NASA were officially calling the mission AS-204. A similar situation to SL-2/Skylab 1, etc with the crew perhaps trying to impose their wishes on the bureaucracy. My own unofficial explanation is that if the fire hadn't happened, the next two manned flights would have been Apollo 2 and Apollo 3, but NASA don't appear to be saying. If it wasn't so trivial, you could ask the astronauts.
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Post by LunarOrbit on Aug 4, 2005 11:24:17 GMT -4
Apollo 7 was the first manned flight of the Apollo CSM in Earth orbit. Apollo 9 tested the CSM and LM in Earth orbit.
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Post by LunarOrbit on Aug 4, 2005 11:50:02 GMT -4
Sorry for the confusion. I know there was no Apollo 2 or 3. I copy and pasted my answer to a question I was asked on my other forum and I guess it gives the wrong impression.
I was asked why there wasn't an Apollo 2 or 3 after the Apollo 1 fire. My reply was that originally (and chronologically) there were 3 unmanned flights before Apollo 1, and that technically Apollo 1 would have been the fourth flight (AS-204). So I was trying to explain that what unofficially might be considered Apollo 2 and 3 chronologically took place before Apollo 1.
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Post by PhantomWolf on Aug 4, 2005 13:17:27 GMT -4
I believe 7 was the first manned CSM in earth orbit and 9 was the first manned test of the LM in earth orbit.
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Post by Count Zero on Aug 4, 2005 13:20:21 GMT -4
Well according to the page I linked to above... This Web page lists them as Skylab 1, 2, 3 and 4; and both of the referenced pages are by NASA. When I do a Google search for “Skylab 4” I get 10,100 hits. With that many hits it seems likely Skylab 4 is a valid designation. Even though (or perhaps because) I was 9 years old at the time, I followed Skylab rather closely, and I can tell you that the designation problem wasn't a matter of history; it cropped-up as it happened. At the time they launched the lab, it was called Skylab I, and the first manned mission was called Skylab 2. by the time the weeks had passed for Pete & Co. to launch, the news & everyone else had trouble keeping in mind that the first manned mission was #2. ~15 years ago I had lunch with Jack Lousma, and he referred to the manned missions in conversation as "first", "second" & "third".
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