Launch of Apollo 4

Apollo 4 was the first uncrewed test flight of the Saturn V rocket, the vehicle that was to carry astronauts to the Moon, and the first launch from Launch Complex 39 at Kennedy Space Center. In the mission of about nine hours, the third stage was restarted in Earth orbit to simulate the engine burn that would send a spacecraft to the Moon, and the Apollo command module was sent to a high altitude and brought back into the atmosphere at nearly the speed of a return from the Moon, to test its heat shield. It was recovered in the Pacific. The success of this first all-up test gave NASA confidence in the Saturn V and came less than a year after the Apollo 1 fire.

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