Talk:Apollo 9

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment

This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): CamdenAl.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 14:32, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

Unused reference

@Wehwalt: Looks like we do not use Compton, William D. (1989). Where No Man Has Gone Before: A History of Apollo Lunar Exploration Missions. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. OCLC 1045558568. SP-4214. Should we make an effort to use it, move it to further reading, or remove it? Kees08 (Talk) 15:04, 27 August 2019 (UTC)

I think we should make an effort to use it, if possible.--Wehwalt (talk) 17:34, 27 August 2019 (UTC)

Interior photo

@Wehwalt: Can you think of any reason not to use the version I created which was later reverted? I assume it was reverted and the file name was reverted for...historical reasons? Even though the file name is against Commons policy..I can always upload as a new file though. File:AS09-20-3104 (21315590814).jpg Kees08 (Talk) 16:50, 13 March 2020 (UTC)

That sounds fine.—Wehwalt (talk) 17:29, 13 March 2020 (UTC)

Done. If anyone thinks I did a horrible job correcting the image, let me know, I am not a professional by any means. Kees08 (Talk) 18:33, 13 March 2020 (UTC)

Sometimes the NASA number in the file name is the only means by which I can be certain of its identity.--Wehwalt (talk) 19:17, 13 March 2020 (UTC)

I leave the ID in there but add a descriptor to it like I did with the photo that I added it. That is the Commons policy as I understand it. I also usually add the NASA-image template but often forget (there isn't a good way to search Commons with the ID number using that template anyways). Kees08 (Talk) 19:40, 13 March 2020 (UTC)

Parameters of SIVb stage - NASA typo?

The stated parameters of the solar orbit of the SIVb stage of approximately 80 x 44 million miles matches what I see in NASA’s mission report for Apollo 9, which is cited as a reference. However, unless NASA had this stage make another engine restart months later, which seems very unlikely, I would think that one of those two values would have to be the distance of the Earth to the sun, about 93 million miles. Indeed, the number 93 appears in this parameter, just after the value of 80, as “80 093 617 miles”. Perhaps the first pair of numbers were accidentally switched, and should have read, “93 080 617 miles”. Also, I think that the stated orbital period of 245 days is close to the orbital period of a 93 x 44 million mile solar orbit, but is much greater than the orbital period of a 80 x 44 million mile orbit. Using an orbital calculator, it appears that an orbit of 93 x 49 million miles would have an orbital period of 245 days, so perhaps the second “4” in the “44” was also a typographical error, and the correct estimate is 49 million miles. As an aside, I doubt that NASA could know the orbital parameters so precisely as it appears, given as though it were known down to the mile, which would require a precision of about one part in a hundred million. 2A01:6500:A101:8106:D006:182:2B7:A658 (talk) 09:29, 26 March 2024 (UTC)

Orloff & Harland, at p. 227, give a slightly different figure, 80,280,952 x 69,417,732 nmi, with a period of 325.8 days. Hawkeye7, do you have some thoughts on this? Wehwalt (talk) 14:44, 26 March 2024 (UTC)

Featured picture scheduled for POTD

Hello! This is to let editors know that File:Gumdrop Meets_Spider_-_GPN-2000-001100.jpg, a featured picture used in this article, has been selected as the English Wikipedia's picture of the day (POTD) for March 3, 2025. A preview of the POTD is displayed below and can be edited at Template:POTD/2025-03-03. For the greater benefit of readers, any potential improvements or maintenance that could benefit the quality of this article should be done before its scheduled appearance on the Main Page. If you have any concerns, please place a message at Wikipedia talk:Picture of the day. Thank you!  — Amakuru (talk) 11:29, 12 May 2024 (UTC)

Apollo 9 (March 3–13, 1969) was the third crewed mission in the United States Apollo program. Launched by a Saturn V rocket and flown in Low Earth Orbit, the mission flight-qualified the Lunar Module (LM), showing that its crew could fly it independently, then rendezvous and dock, as would be required for Apollo 11, the first crewed lunar landing. Commander James McDivitt, Command Module Pilot David Scott, and Lunar Module Pilot Rusty Schweickart tested systems and procedures critical to landing on the Moon. A spacewalk tested the extravehicular life support backpack. McDivitt and Schweickart, entering the lunar module through the docking tunnel, became the first humans to pass between spacecraft without going outside them, two months after Soviet cosmonauts spacewalked to transfer between Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5. Apollo 9, a complete success, was followed by Apollo 10, the dress rehearsal for Apollo 11. This photograph, taken by Schweickart, shows Scott performing a stand-up extravehicular activity from the Command Module Gumdrop, seen from docked LM Spider.

Photograph credit: Rusty Schweickart / NASA

Recently featured:

Featured picture scheduled for POTD

Hello! This is to let editors know that File:Schweickart Apollo 9 EVA (AS09-19-2982).jpg, a featured picture used in this article, has been selected as the English Wikipedia's picture of the day (POTD) for March 3, 2026. A preview of the POTD is displayed below and can be edited at Template:POTD/2026-03-03. For the greater benefit of readers, any potential improvements or maintenance that could benefit the quality of this article should be done before its scheduled appearance on the Main Page. If you have any concerns, please place a message at Wikipedia talk:Picture of the day. Thank you!  — Amakuru (talk) 11:30, 12 May 2024 (UTC)

Apollo 9 (March 3–13, 1969) was the third crewed mission in the United States Apollo program. Launched by a Saturn V rocket and flown in Low Earth Orbit, the mission flight-qualified the Lunar Module, showing that its crew could fly it independently, then rendezvous and dock, as would be required for Apollo 11, the first crewed lunar landing. Commander James McDivitt, Command Module Pilot David Scott, and Lunar Module Pilot Rusty Schweickart tested systems and procedures critical to landing on the Moon. A spacewalk tested the extravehicular life support backpack. McDivitt and Schweickart, entering the lunar module through the docking tunnel, became the first humans to pass between spacecraft without going outside them, two months after Soviet cosmonauts spacewalked to transfer between Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5. Apollo 9, a complete success, was followed by Apollo 10, the dress rehearsal for Apollo 11. This photograph, taken by Scott, shows Schweickart performing an extravehicular activity, standing in the hatch of the Command Module Gumdrop.

Photograph credit: David Scott / NASA

Recently featured:

• [[Template:POTD/2026-03-01|]]