AS-203

Launch Success

Liftoff Time (GMT)

14:53:13

Tuesday July 5, 1966

Watch Replay

Official Livestream

Mission Details

AS-203

Wiki

AS-203 (or SA-203) was an unmanned flight of the Saturn IB rocket on July 5, 1966. It carried no Apollo Command/Service Module spacecraft, as its purpose was to verify the design of the S-IVB rocket stage restart capability that would later be used in the Apollo program to boost astronauts from Earth orbit to a trajectory towards the Moon. It successfully achieved its objectives, but the stage was inadvertently destroyed after four orbits.

Low Earth Orbit

1 Payload

Rocket

Retired
Saturn IB

Active 1966 to 1975

National Aeronautics and Space Administration logo

Agency

NASA

Rocket

Height: 43.2m

Payload to Orbit

LEO: 21,000 kg

Liftoff Thrust

7,100 Kilonewtons

Stages

2

Launch Site

SLC-37B

Cape Canaveral SFS, Florida, USA

Fastest Turnaround

66 days 5 hours

Stats

Saturn IB


2nd

Mission

2nd

Mission of 1966

1966


66th

Orbital launch attempt