On March 3, 1969, NASA launched the Apollo 9, the first manned flight of the lunar module and tested all of the components for the lunar landing mission. On the flight, the module performed many of the same maneuvers, like docking and rendezvous, that would be used in the Apollo 10 lunar orbit mission. It also tested the module’s performance in the Earth orbit.

During its 10-day mission, the Apollo 9  orbited the Earth 151 times and traveled a total distance of 4.2 million miles. It was crewed by commander James A. McDivitt, lunar module pilot Russell Schweickart and command module pilot David R. Scott.