Fifty years ago, 10 days in space pushed human spaceflight forward with spectacular, groundbreaking testing. On March 3, 1969, a Saturn V rocket launched three brave astronauts into low Earth orbit as part of Apollo 9, a mission on which the crew tested the spacecraft that would later land humans on the lunar surface. The second mission to be launched into orbit by a Saturn V rocket, Apollo 9 was the third crewed mission in the U.S. Apollo program. Apollo 9 saw the first flight of the command and service module (CSM) with the Apollo lunar module (LM). Aboard Apollo 9 was Cmdr. James McDivitt, command module pilot Dave Scott and LM pilot Rusty Schweickart.
Of all the groundbreaking testing completed during the mission, perhaps the most obviously critical for the lunar landing was the LM testing Schweickart did. Although it was the spacecraft's first test in outer space, Schweickart wasn't the least bit nervous, he told Space.com. The training and experiences he'd had as a fighter pilot were far more nerve-wracking, he said. "Not always, but certainly in my case and in the case of most of the people back then, you've been flying high-performance fighter jets around in situations which are, in some sense, more dangerous," he said. Schweickart also commended the extensive training he received at NASA, saying that because of this preparation, "I certainly never felt the least bit of fear or anxiety about coming out of it alive."
Credits:
https://www.space.com/apollo-9-nasa-50th-anniversary.html
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