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Gumdrop Meets Spider" You ' re th e biggest, friendliest, funniest-looking sp iderI've ever see n."That's how Astronaut David Scott, piloting Apollo q's Comma ndand Service Module (CSM), code-named Gumdrop, welcomedba ck the lunar Module (lM l, code-named Spid er, from itsfirst so lo v e n ~ u r e into space. Spider's hollow drogue, cfeli ca telyguided by Astronauts James M cDivitt and Russe ll Schwrickarl,found the dockin g probe on Gumdrop , Jnd J bu zzer d their union ."Wow! " M cDivitt exclaimed, " I haven' t hea rd a so und that goodfor a long time."And thus on March 7, 1969, the fif th day of the flight ofApollo 9, did Spider prove itself in spa ce. Previous miss ion s hadtested th e Saturn 5 launch vehicle and th e CSM. A later one wouldtest the lM in the vicinity of the M oon . out when Apollospla shed down at the end of ten d a ~ In spa ce in the wateroff Grand Turk Island in the Bahamas th ere wa s renewedconfidence th at before 1969 was out a Spider would land twAmerican s on the Moon .Below from left to right, lunar Module Pilol Ru sse ll Schweickarl,Command M odule Pilot David Scott and CommanderJames M cDivi tt. Allhe right, lu nar Module, Code-name : Spider.

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Friend SpiderScott's friend the Lunar Module may indeed be the ungai nliestcraft ever to carry men in space, but it also is the first Irue maImedspacecraft. Olher spacecraft. like the Spider's mother ship ,are shaped to bear the searing heat of re-en l ering the Earth'satmosphere. The Spider, beca use it will f ly cmly in space, isdesigned to perform its functions without the re -entry re str ic tion .It may resemble an earthling's nlgl 'Tlare of a visitor fromanother planet.Six antennas, 18 rockets, and four spidery legs ju t from itsoddly-angled sla b sides, which, patterned in gold and black,control the heat in Ihe unimpeded light of the Sun . It weighs '16tons and stands 23 feet high , incorporating 25 miles of wiringand a million-odd parts.For easing the foolpads and their 5-foo t probes onto the Moon ,LM's lower half houses a variable thrust rocket engi ne whichenables it to hover like a helicopter. To launch them se lves backto the Command Module in orbit of the Moon, the two astronau tswill fire an engine in the upper half of the Lunar Module,using the lower half as their launch pad.

RCS Thruster 'A"lIIIAssemblyAscent Engine Cover

OxidizerIngress-Egress Hatch

Fuel (Aerozine 5 0 ) ~ .......

Ox idizer(NitrogenTe troxide)

2ASCENT STAGE

S-Band AntennaVHF Antenna

Gaseous OxygenFuel (RCS)

i!:...s:: l. ft HeliumLiquid Oxygen

dizer

Fuel (Aerozine 50 )

Oxygen

DESCENT STAGE

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1. Lun.lf Module ascent ,t . :e ;5 prepared (or test.2. Lunar Module eluring check-out.

Apollo 9 I ~ maled LO launch vehicle. rJaring Ou l illb;)/tom o( Apollo is adapler thaI proteclS LunarModule during flight rhrough atmosphere.4. Apo/lo Q/5aturn V vehicle on mobile launcher.uti/way ~ h 0 1 V 5 po

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Shadow On The MoonFor every hour of the ten days that McDivitt, Scott, andSchweickart spent on Apollo 9's mission, they had put in threehours of realistic rehearsal on the ground . The Apollo crewspractice in life-size working models of the LM an d CSM with theillusion of actual space flight so comple te that the LM,simulating descent to the Moon, casts a simul ated shadow ona simulated moonscape .The mockup spacecraft, suspended and movi ng about oncolumns of air, were linked to computers programmed to duplicateconditions at every stage of any planned Apollo miss ion.Men at the console of the computers could create emergenciesfor the astronauts to cope with. An arrangement of televisioncameras, len ses, magnifiers, and reflectors, projecting sca le mode lsof Earth , Moon and Stars, provided a precise image of whatthe astronauts could expect to see out their spacecraf t w indows.

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I. Artist Nicholas So lovioff'.