Forty years ago: Apollo 5 lifts off to test lunar module

William Atkins
Monday, 14 January 2008 19:42

Science - Space

An ascent burn then occurred for 60 seconds followed by a burn for six minutes, 23 seconds. This series of burns, called “fire in the hole," burned the engine of the ascent propulsion system (APS), until its fuel was gone, while it was still attached to the descent stage. This action would simulate the conditions experienced in an abort during descent to the lunar surface.

The LM (specifically, LM-1) passed all of its tests during its 11.5-orbit mission in space, with approximately eleven hours, ten minutes of testing time.

The orbit of the LM ascent stage decayed on January 24, 1968 and it fell to Earth, while the orbit of the LM descent stage decayed on February 12, 1968 and it disintegrated in Earth’s atmosphere as it descended toward Earth.

The mission was deemed a total success by NASA mission managers. The first unmanned flight of the Apollo Lunar Module meant that the United States had the ability to land astronauts onto the lunar surface, and lift them back up once their Moon mission was accomplished.

The United States of America was going to the Moon, which it did with Apollo 11 when it lifted off on July 16, 1969. The lunar module, LM-5 (“Eagle”) then landed U.S. astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the Moon on July 20, 1969.

For additional information, please go to:

NASA website “Apollo 5: NSSDC ID: 1968-007A”.

National Air and Space Museum website “The Apollo Program”.

NASA Kennedy Space Center website “Apollo”.