Saturn V | Apollo 6
Status: Partial Failure | Launched: Apr 04, 1968 12:00 UTC
Launch Provider & Rocket
- Provider: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Government)
- Rocket: Saturn V — Saturn family
Mission
Apollo 6 was intended to send a Command and Service Module (CSM) plus a Lunar Module Test Article (LTA), a simulated Lunar Module (LM) with mounted structural vibration sensors, into a translunar trajectory. However, the Moon would not be in position for a translunar flight, and the Service Module engine would be fired about five minutes later to slow the craft, dropping its apogee to 11,989 nautical miles (22,204 km) and causing the CSM to return to Earth, simulating a "direct-return" abort. On the return leg, the engine would fire once more to accelerate the craft to simulate the nominal lunar return trajectory with a re-entry angle of -6.5 degrees and velocity of 36,500 feet per second (11,100 m/s). The entire mission would last about 10 hours.
- Type: Human Exploration
- Orbit: Elliptical Orbit (Elliptical)
Launch Site
- Pad: Launch Complex 39A
- Location: Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA
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Program
- Apollo — The Apollo program was the third United States human spaceflight program carried out by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which succeeded in landing the first humans on the Moon from 1969 to 1972. (Wikipedia)
Launch data sourced automatically from the Launch Library 2 API. Last refreshed: 2026-10-08T01:01:54.797344+00:00.