Earth Orbit Rendezvous
The Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama developed an Earth Orbit Rendezvous proposal (EOR) for the Apollo program in 1960-1961. The proposal used a series of small rockets half the size of a Saturn V to launch different components of a spacecraft headed to the Moon. These components would be assembled in orbit around the Earth, then sent to the Moon via trans-lunar injection. The mission objectives of Project Gemini involving rendezvous and docking with the Agena target vehicle would test and validate the feasibility of this approach for the Apollo program.
The Saturn C-3 was the primary launch vehicle for Earth Orbit Rendezvous. The booster consisted of a first stage containing two Saturn V F-1 engines, a second stage containing four powerful J-2 engines, and the S-IV stage from a Saturn I booster. All stages for the Saturn C-3, except the S-IV, never flew except for their engines, used on the Saturn V rocket which took men to the moon.
Read more about this topic: Saturn C-3
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“I should be glad if all the meadows on the earth were left in a wild state, if that were the consequence of men’s beginning to redeem themselves.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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