Apollo 5 - Delays

Delays

As with Apollo 4, this flight experienced long delays. The primary cause of this was the Lunar Module, which was well behind schedule. Some of the delay could be attributed to lack of experience in building a manned spacecraft to land on the Moon.

The first unmanned launch was originally planned in April 1967, requiring delivery at the Cape around September 1966. But delays kept occurring. Although the Lunar Module was fully designed, there was trouble fabricating the custom made parts. The engines were also having problems. The descent engine was not burning smoothly, and the ascent engine was having fabrication and welding difficulties.

In the end these problems were overcome, but it took several months and it was not until June 23, 1967 that LM-1 arrived at the Cape on board Aero Spacelines' Super Guppy. After four months of tests and repair the LM was mated to the launch vehicle on November 19.

On December 17, 1967, another LM under test failed in the Grumman ascent stage manufacturing plant. A window in LM-5 (Apollo 11's LM Eagle) shattered during its initial cabin pressurization test, designed to pressurize the cabin to 39 kilopascals (5.7 lbf/in2). Both inner and outer windows and the acrylic glass cover of the right-hand window shattered when the pressure reached 35 kPa (5.1 lbf/in2).

On December 28, 1967 a decision was made to replace the glass windows in LM-1 with aluminum plates as a precaution against a failure in flight similar to the one that occurred on LM-5 in testing.