AS-101

<h2 id="boilerplate-apollo">Boilerplate Apollo</h2>
<p>The first five launches of the Saturn I had carried <a href="/facts/PGM-19_Jupiter/KD3QYXY0">Jupiter</a> nosecones, a proven design which allowed engineers to focus on development of the rocket. To verify the  launch aerodynamics of the CSM, AS-101 carried BP-13, a <a href="/facts/Boilerplate_(spacecraft)/eJ4BBdAN">boilerplate spacecraft</a> that weighed 17,000 pounds (7,700 kg) and duplicated the size and shape of the CSM, and a dummy LES tower. A flight-weight command module (CM) weighed around 12,000 pounds (5,400 kg).<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3"><sup>3</sup></a> The boilerplate spacecraft was instrumented with 116 sensors reading strain, pressure, temperature, heat flux, and acceleration.
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<h2 id="flight">Flight</h2>

<p>It took three attempts to launch the rocket from <a href="/facts/Cape_Canaveral_Air_Force_Station_Space_Launch_Complex_37/bGEN3MjW">Cape Kennedy Air Force Station Space Launch Complex 37B</a>. The first attempt was scrubbed after the <a href="/facts/Liquid_oxygen/qnI0KDTb">liquid oxygen</a> damaged a wire mesh screen during a test, causing fuel contamination. The second attempt was scrubbed after the rocket's guidance system overheated due to failure of an air conditioning compressor.
</p><p>The vehicle finally lifted off on May 28, 1964. There had been several delays during the countdown as liquid oxygen vapors obscured an optical window in the SA-6's instrument unit, so that a ground-based <a href="/facts/Theodolite/G4ADP1bC">theodolite</a> could not see it. This theodolite was required by the countdown computer in order for launch to proceed. Engineers deemed it non-critical and reprogrammed the computer, allowing the launch to proceed.
</p><p>The ascent was normal up to 116.9 seconds after liftoff, at which point engine number eight shut off early. This was not planned, as it had been on <a href="/facts/SA-4_(Apollo)/E1KwJfCL">SA-4</a> as a test, but the rocket compensated perfectly by burning the remaining fuel in the other seven engines for 2.7 seconds longer than planned. The first stage separated and the second stage ignited. Ten seconds later, the launch escape system was jettisoned as planned. Also jettisoned from the first stage were eight film cameras that observed separation of the stages.
</p><p>The second stage cut off at 624.5 seconds after launch (1.26 seconds earlier than predicted), with the stage and boilerplate spacecraft in a 182 kilometers (98 nautical miles) by 227 kilometers (123 nautical miles) orbit. It continued to transmit data for four orbits, after which the batteries failed. The vehicle made a total of 54 orbits, re-entering the atmosphere east of <a href="/facts/Kanton_Island/rlTd5Anu">Kanton Island</a> in the <a href="/facts/Pacific_Ocean/bdxgXRVM">Pacific Ocean</a> on June 1.
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<h2 id="engine-failure-cause">Engine failure cause</h2>
<p>Engineers were quick to find the cause of the failure of engine number eight. The teeth on one of the gears in the <a href="/facts/Turbopump/D6L2o2Yk">turbopump</a> were stripped off. This did not cause any delays in the next launches as engineers had already decided that the gear design was inferior and were planning to change it for the next launch. This was the only problem encountered with an <a href="/facts/H-1_(rocket_engine)/w0RDNfF6">H-1</a> engine during a flight.
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<ul>
<li>Spaceflight portal</li></ul>
<p> This article incorporates <a href="https://www.jsc.nasa.gov/policies.html#Guidelines">public domain material</a> from websites or documents of the <a href="/facts/National_Aeronautics_and_Space_Administration/TIMCV0yV">National Aeronautics and Space Administration</a>.
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<h2 id="external-links">External links</h2>

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Saturn-Apollo 6.

<ul><li><a href="https://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4009/cover.htm">The Apollo Spacecraft: A Chronology</a> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20171209084600/http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4009/cover.htm">Archived</a> December 9, 2017, at the <a href="/facts/Wayback_Machine/nmQ3a6JC">Wayback Machine</a></li>
<li><a href="https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1964-025A">NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4204/cover.html">Moonport: A History of Apollo Launch Facilities and Operations</a> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110318012712/http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4204/cover.html">Archived</a> March 18, 2011, at the <a href="/facts/Wayback_Machine/nmQ3a6JC">Wayback Machine</a></li>
<li><a href="https://science.ksc.nasa.gov/history/apollo/sa-6/sa-6.html">http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/history/apollo/sa-6/sa-6.html</a> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110514001106/http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/history/apollo/sa-6/sa-6.html">Archived</a> May 14, 2011, at the <a href="/facts/Wayback_Machine/nmQ3a6JC">Wayback Machine</a></li>
<li><a href="https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4206/sp4206.htm">Stages to Saturn</a></li>
<li><a href="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19790077210">Postlaunch Report for Apollo Mission A-101</a></li></ul>

<h2 id="references">References</h2>

<ol>
<li id="fn:1"><p>"NASA: SA-6". Archived from the original on May 14, 2011. Retrieved December 8, 2003. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110514001106/http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/history/apollo/sa-6/sa-6.html" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20110514001106/http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/history/apollo/sa-6/sa-6.html</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:2"><p>NSSDC: SA-6 <a href="https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1964-025A" target="_blank">https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1964-025A</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:3"><p>NSSDC: SA-6 <a href="https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1964-025A" target="_blank">https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1964-025A</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
</ol>

AS-101 open-in-new

AS-101