Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!husc6!cfa!cfa250!mcdowell
From: mcdowell@cfa250.harvard.edu (Jonathan McDowell)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: Apollo trivia (was Challenger tragedy)
Message-ID: <1037@cfa237.cfa250.harvard.edu>
Date: 3 Aug 88 15:54:22 GMT
References: <12716@ames.arc.nasa.gov>
Organization: Harvard/Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Lines: 17

From article <12716@ames.arc.nasa.gov>, by mike@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Mike Smithwick):
> Gotcha! There were no Apollo 2 or 3 missions. The first was Apollo 4 in 
> November 1967 I think. This was the first Saturn V flight test. I haven't
> heard any good reason as to why they jumped the mission designators.
> Originally Apollo 2 would have been the Schirra and Co.

They started off with the unpiloted missions as Apollo-Saturn 201, Apollo-Saturn 202,
and Apollo-Saturn 203. These then sort of retrospectively became Apollos 1-3 
although they were not formally renamed as such, and the sequence then carried
on with the 11/67 Apollo 4 test. The issue was complicated when NASA officially 
named the pad fire Apollo 1 in response to a request from the dead astronauts'
families. The sequence ended with Apollo 17, and the nomenclature for the 
Apollo spacecraft in the Skylab and ASTP programs is even more confusing.

Thats what I remember; anyone got a more accurate explanation?

Jonathan McDowell