The Apollo 9 mission was launched on March 3, 1969, from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It was the third human spaceflight mission in the Apollo program and the first to include a crewed lunar module. The mission was commanded by James McDivitt, with David Scott and Russell
Apollo 9 was the third human spaceflight in NASA's Apollo program, which successfully tested systems and procedures critical to landing on the Moon. The three-man crew consisted of Commander James McDivitt, Command Module Pilot David Scott, and Lunar Module Pilot Rusty Schweickart. Flown in low Earth orbit, it was the second crewed Apollo mission that the United States launched via a Saturn V rocket, and was the first flight of the full Apollo spacecraft: the command and service module (CSM) with the Lunar Module (LM).