Vehicle Assembly
The S-IC first stage arrived by barge on March 13, 1967 and was erected in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) four days later, with the S-IVB third stage and Instrument Unit computer arriving the same day. The S-II second stage was two months behind them and so was substituted with a dumbbell-shaped spacer so testing could proceed. This had the same height and mass as the S-II along with all the electrical connections. The S-II arrived May 24. It was stacked and mated into the rocket on July 7.
Testing was slow as they were still checking out the launch vehicle for Apollo 4, a limitation of the system where there wasn't two of everyone and everything. The VAB could handle up to four Saturn Vs, but could only check out one at a time.
The Command and Service Module, a Block I model, similar to that flown on three previous unmanned tests, arrived September 29 and was stacked December 10. It was actually a hybrid of two production spacecraft, consisting of CM-020 and SM-014, since SM-020 had been destroyed in a tank explosion and CM-014 had been dismantled to support the investigation into the Apollo 1 fire. After two months of testing and repairs, the rocket was moved to the pad on February 6, 1968.
Read more about this topic: Apollo 6
Famous quotes containing the words vehicle and/or assembly:
“How strange a vehicle it is, coming down unchanged from times of old romance, and so characteristically black, the way no other thing is black except a coffin—a vehicle evoking lawless adventures in the plashing stillness of night, and still more strongly evoking death itself, the bier, the dark obsequies, the last silent journey!”
—Thomas Mann (1875–1955)
“There is a sacred horror about everything grand. It is easy to admire mediocrity and hills; but whatever is too lofty, a genius as well as a mountain, an assembly as well as a masterpiece, seen too near, is appalling.”
—Victor Hugo (1802–1885)