Apollo 4 - Vehicle Assembly

Vehicle Assembly

The launch of AS-501 was originally planned for late 1966, but was pushed back by stage development problems to April, 1967. The first piece to arrive at the Kennedy Space Center was the S-IVB third stage, on August 14, 1966. Built by Douglas Aircraft Company, it was small enough to be transported by a specially built plane, the "Pregnant Guppy" built by Aero Spacelines, Inc..

The other stages were much larger and had to travel by barge, with the first stage arriving next on September 12 from the Boeing Company at Michoud, Louisiana along the Banana River. The second stage, built by North American Aviation, was experiencing the greatest development delays, and did not make delivery in 1966. In the meantime, vehicle assembly continued using a huge spool-shaped spacer in the place of the second stage.

The CSM, also built by North American Aviation, arrived on December 24, 1966, followed by the tardy S-II second stage on January 21, 1967. Six days later, the fatal Apollo 1 spacecraft fire occurred, placing all schedules in question.

Then, problems requiring rework were discovered in the North American components. An inspection of wiring in the CSM found 1,407 problems, and it was removed from the stack on February 14 for repair. Worse still, cracks were found in the S-II liquid hydrogen tank. These were repaired and the S-II was finally stacked on February 23. The CSM repairs required another four months until it was ready to be re-mated to the rocket on June 20. On August 26, the complete launch vehicle, now designated Apollo 4, finally rolled out of the VAB - almost six months after the originally scheduled launch date.