Exploring the Unknown: Selected Documents in ... - The Black Vault

Exploring the Unknown 641
1. Prior to 1970, the Gemini and Apollo programs, building on results
of Mercury and Saturn I, will have provided:
a. The capability to explore space out to 250,000 miles from
earth and to conduct manned operations and experi ments
on flights of up to two weeks duration.
b. The Saturn IB and Saturn V boosters, which will have
injected 20 and 140 tons of payload per launch, respectively,
into near-earth orbit. The Saturn V will have sent 48 tons to
the vicinity of the moon.
c. The Apollo spacecraft, which will have sustained a threeman
crew for two weeks in a two-compartment, modular,
[3] maneuverable vehicle and will have landed two men
on the moon and returned them, with samples of lunar
material, to earth.
d. A U.S. manned space flight log of over 500 man days in space,
during which data and experience will have been acquired
from approximately 100 in-flight experiments in response to
the needs of the scientific and technological communities.
(To date, U.S. astronauts have logged approximately 75
man-days in space.)
2. The currently approved Apollo mission objectives can be
accomplished with the currently funded flight vehicles.
PROGRAM OBJECTIVES
a. If the approved Apollo objectives can be achieved with
fewer flights, the remaining flight vehicles can be used
for alternate missions during 1968-71. Follow-on missions
requiring procurement of flight hardware beyond that now
funded would continue the manned space flight effort,
based on Apollo systems, beyond that time.
b. If all of the presently funded hardware is required for the
basic Apollo lunar missions, the program content of the
alternate missions can be appropriately phased into the
follow-on period.
The basic purposes of the Saturn Apollo Applications Program are to
continue without hiatus an active and productive [4] post Apollo Program of
manned space flight and to exploit for useful purposes and further develop the
capabilities of the Saturn Apollo System. The major flight mission objectives of
the proposed Saturn Apollo Applications flight program fall into two principal
categories of essentially equal importance as follows:
A. Long Duration Flights