Kennedy Space Center Apollo 8's lunar orbiting mission. The next two missions tested the Lunar Module: Apollo 9 (Earth orbit) and Apollo 10 (lunar orbit). Apollo 11, launched from Pad A on July 16, 1969, made the first Moon landing on July 20. Apollo 12 followed four months later. From 1970–1972, the Apollo program concluded at KSC with the launches of missions 13 through 17. On May 14, 1973, the last Saturn V launch put the Skylab space station in orbit from Pad 39A. By this time, the Cape Kennedy pads 34 and 37 used for the Saturn IB were decommissioned, so Pad
The Throne of Saturn (novel) make the burn to take them out of orbit and leave Trasker to die. The two astronauts shoot each other; Halleck is killed, and Weickert ejects his body into space. Leaving Balkis' body on the surface, Trasker rejoins Weickert in orbit and rams the Soviet ship, sending it spinning into a fatal solar orbit. Trasker gets himself and the severely wounded Weickert back to the American space station in Earth orbit. Back on Earth, a congressional investigation into Planetary Fleet One is launched. The President urges Trasker to downplay the Soviet role in the tragedy to avoid international tension, implying