It orbited Earth several times before heading to the Moon. The maneuver that connected the LEM to the top of the command module happened in Earth orbit.
Partially correct. They orbited the Earth for 2.5h before the last stage of the launch vehicle starts the 5 minute TLI burn at T+02:44. The docking happens after that. Source (pages 108 -109).
Ah thanks for the correction. Makes sense that it had to happen during TLI since the SM engine wouldn’t have enough fuel for TLI, entering moon orbit, and exiting moon orbit.
I guess in my memory I was thinking they wouldn’t do such a maneuver without an immediate abort plan, but I think the SM engine could do an immediate about face or at least (obviously) get back to Earth on the free-return path after one loop around the Moon.
I thought the reconfiguration happened after the TLI burn and that the S4-B stage did the TLI burn. So technically it's not in LEO but it at a point in its orbit close to earth. At one point it was in orbit so I guess you could call it an orbital rocket...
The real conspiracy is that they managed to get their staging right the first time, without reverting to VAB.
Since the time is also reset when reverting to VAB, we can't actually know how often they tried.
"Well we made it to orbit this time but they are completely out of fuel."
"Roll it back and add more SRBs."
Add more booster!
for unstaged moon landing check out the insanities KSP players can create
pathetic
It wasn't an orbital rocket afaik. It went further than orbit, as it traveled to the gravitational influence of the moon and back.
It orbited Earth several times before heading to the Moon. The maneuver that connected the LEM to the top of the command module happened in Earth orbit.
Partially correct. They orbited the Earth for 2.5h before the last stage of the launch vehicle starts the 5 minute TLI burn at T+02:44. The docking happens after that. Source (pages 108 -109).
Oh mother country I do love you
Ah thanks for the correction. Makes sense that it had to happen during TLI since the SM engine wouldn’t have enough fuel for TLI, entering moon orbit, and exiting moon orbit.
I guess in my memory I was thinking they wouldn’t do such a maneuver without an immediate abort plan, but I think the SM engine could do an immediate about face or at least (obviously) get back to Earth on the free-return path after one loop around the Moon.
That's true.
It happened again in lunar orbit
I thought the reconfiguration happened after the TLI burn and that the S4-B stage did the TLI burn. So technically it's not in LEO but it at a point in its orbit close to earth. At one point it was in orbit so I guess you could call it an orbital rocket...
If only skylon wasn't cancelled this wouldn't be true...