Launched on the fourth Saturn IB launch vehicle, the Apollo 5 mission lifted off on January 22nd, 1968, from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Similar to Apollo 4 and 6, Apollo 5 was an uncrewed flight with the goal of testing key Apollo Program technology. The primary mission objective for the Apollo 5 mission was to test the Apollo lunar module's (LM) ascent and descent propulsion systems in Earth orbit.
The First Lunar Module (LM-1)
The Apollo 5 mission's primary objective was to test the Apollo lunar module, which was a two-stage vehicle designed to ferry two astronauts from lunar orbit to the lunar surface and back. The upper ascent stage consisted of a pressurized crew compartment, equipment areas, and an ascent rocket engine. The lower descent stage had the landing gear and contained the descent rocket engine and lunar surface experiments.
Because the Apollo 5 test flight of LM 1 was so successful, a second uncrewed test of the lunar module was deemed unnecessary. The Museum's collection features the Lunar Module 2, or LM-2. LM-2 was built for a second uncrewed Earth-orbit test flight, and was used for ground testing prior to the first successful Moon-landing mission.