Apollo 9 - The LEM flies in Earth orbit

In fact, Apollo 9 was the ONLY time that the LEM (Lunar Excursion Module) would ever fly on its own in Earth orbit. Normally the LEM was picked out of the 3rd stage of the Saturn V by the Command/Service module and taken to Moon, where it normally flies on its own to touchdown on the Moon.Apollo 9 was the test run for LEM free flight. It was supposed to logically Apollo _8_, but the Russians were rumored to be readying an around-the-moon-only unmanned or manned flight, so Apollo 8 & 9 were swapped at the last moment so the US could circle the moon on Apollo 8 to beat them!My dad worked on the LEM! :-)

Graspr | July 30, 2008

Tags:. .Instructional. .excursion. .lem48907. .touchdown. .module