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
Artificial satellites in retrograde orbit Artificial satellites in retrograde orbit Artificial satellites are rarely placed in retrograde orbit. This is partly due to the extra velocity (and fuel) required to launch into orbit against the direction of the Earth's rotation. Most commercial Earth-observing satellites use retrograde sun-synchronous orbits to ensure that observations are performed at the same local time each pass of any given location, while almost all communication satellites use prograde orbits. Israel has successfully launched seven Ofeq satellites in retrograde orbit aboard a Shavit launcher. These reconnaissance satellites complete one Earth orbit every 90 minutes and initially make about six daylight passes per